The Key to Freedom is Discipline

Blog Series

Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble

It is said that you cannot break the laws of God. You can only break yourself against them when you violate them. In this series we are looking at some of the simple and clear “laws of God” – that is to say, “biblical principles” – that we must follow if we do not want to bring very negative cause-effect consequences into our lives.

My golfing surprise

I’ll always remember when I was in high school how surprised I was the very first time I ever tried to hit a golf ball. I fully expected to feel a solid “thunk” and watch the ball trace a great rooster tail in the sky as it flew hundreds of yards down the manicured fairway. Instead, I didn’t even hit it. I reared back like a Neanderthal attacking a snake, and swung with undisguised fury. I wanted, and fully expected, to hear gasps of admiration as my friends watched the ball surge eagerly into the bright summer sky.

Instead, there was an angry “whooshing” sound – no “thunk.” I felt a slight twinge in my lower back, which wasn’t used to taking such a savage swing at something and not hitting it. Instead of gasps of admiration, there were tentative snorts of astonishment. In a thinly disguised attempt to make it look as if I had taken a practice swing, I quickly swung several more times, trying to replicate my original swing.

I approached the ball again, as one might approach a rattlesnake. What in the world had happened? That ball was supposed to go flying. Why didn’t it? What do I do next time to make sure it does? I felt as though I were in the twilight zone, with unknown laws of physics taking over my life.

It was an unhappy situation. If I missed it again, there would be no pretense. I tried to not think about missing again, put my mind in neutral and attacked again. This time, I hit it! However, instead of charging straight down the fairway, it sputtered off into the grass at a ninety-degree angle.

Welp, the jig was up. I now knew – and my friends knew – that I could not hit a golf ball. They compromised between sarcasm and sympathy, sniggering derisively but never actually saying anything. I claimed my mulligan (a free swing off the tee – not in the rules book), and tried again. This time, it dribbled pitifully down the fairway about a hundred feet (at least in the right direction this time), and I began a merciless assault on a dozen golf balls, alternating between losing them in the woods and cutting deep grins in their covers.

How could this happen to me? I had reasonable athletic skills. It looked so easy when I saw other people do it. If they could hit the ball down the fairway, why couldn’t I? It was humiliating.

My subsequent surprises

The memory of my golfing experience faded and, some years after that, I decided I wanted to learn how to play the piano. So, I bought a book for adult learners and began practicing on a small electronic keyboard we had. It wasn’t long before I realized that it was going to be much more difficult than I had ever imagined. After several months of practicing, whenever I tried to play something, it still sounded like a chimpanzee loose on the keyboard. I eventually decided that I was willing to give whatever was in my power to learn how to play the piano – except the amount of time required.

Sometime later, I determined that I wanted to learn how to paint with water colors. So, for my birthday, my wife gave me a six-week course of water color lessons at an adult education class at a nearby university. I was realistic, I thought. I didn’t expect to be good when I started, but I didn’t expect to be pathetic.

I was pathetic!

Everything I painted looked like a storm at sea. Try to paint a rose? It looked like a storm at sea. Try to paint a cardinal in a pine tree? It looked like a storm at sea. Try to paint a sailboat at anchor? It looked like a storm at sea. My artistic skills had not improved noticeably since grade school.

It wasn’t until about then that I began to see the connection among all these things and began to learn a gigantic lesson that has been reinforced countless times since: almost everything is difficult to do well. From the simplest task such as hitting a golf ball, to playing a musical instrument to flying a jet fighter plane, if someone is good at it, it is because he or she has worked very hard at it.

And, to work long and hard at something requires discipline.

So, only by discipline do we ever get really good at anything.

What I learned from my surprises

Many people think that discipline is limiting and restraining. And so it is. But it is also liberating and enabling.

On the other hand, many people think that total freedom is liberating and enabling. And so it is. But it too is also limiting and restraining.

Achieving our goals almost always comes down to choosing carefully our freedoms and bondages.

If we choose one freedom, we get a corresponding bondage. If we choose a bondage, we get a corresponding freedom. For example, if we place ourselves in bondage to brushing our teeth every day, we have the corresponding freedom of no cavities. If we exercise the freedom of not brushing our teeth, we have the corresponding bondage of cavities.

One of my seminary professors used to ask two fundamental questions of us over and over again; “What do you want out of life? Are you willing to pay the price?” Those were life-changing questions. They have guided me ever since.

Conclusion

I remember years ago, an Olympic gold-medalist in gymnastics from the United States, Mary Lou Retton, was asked if she ever thought about quitting before she got to the Olympics. She said, “Oh, yes. Many times. But then, when I realized it would mean the death of my dreams, I always kept going.”

But, in order to get the gold medal, she had to give away her childhood. While all the other children were out playing and doing “little girl things,” Mary Lou was in the gym inflicting pain on herself. Not everyone, of course, is inclined to pay the price, and at that level of commitment, no one could blame them. But how free we are in life depends on how disciplined we are willing to be. We have to choose our freedoms and bondages.

The apostle Paul wrote, “I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Discipline is the key to getting what we want in life. It is the key to freedom.

In case you’re new here

The entire “Helpful Tips for Saving Yourself from Trouble” series is in the archives, beginning with the first post on July 26, 2022. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives.

In addition, I’m creating a new online membership site, The Change Zone, that will provide information, strategies and resources to help motivated Christians renew their mind and transform their lives. If you would like to learn more about this and get updates to know when The Change Zone will be available, click here.

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