"So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating
the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after
preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 1 Corinthians
9:26-27
There are some days that I am like a chicken with my head cut off….
just ask my husband. He is so wonderful,
but there are some days where he needs to put me (respectfully and lovingly) in
my place. I cannot do it all. As hard as that is for me to admit, I am not
super human.
There are some days where I am walking from the bedroom to the
kitchen to start dinner and I will get there about a half an hour later because
I stop along the way when I remember there is laundry to switch over (and fold)
and an email to send out quick (it’s usually VERY URGENT ;) ). By the time I get to the kitchen to start
dinner, we are all so hungry, we end up settling for peanut butter sandwiches
rather than the lasagna soup I had planned (which happens to be David and
Samuel’s favorite these days J).
It’s far too often where I am who Paul is talking about. I am running.
I am running fast. Not only fast,
but also I am at times running aimlessly (like a chicken with its head cut off),
forgetting my goal and my task at hand.
It is as Paul says, “like boxing as one beating the air”.
I would be kidding myself if I didn’t humbly admit that I not only
do this in my every day life but in my walk with the Lord too. I am so often trying to find my own way
running so aimlessly trying to accomplish my own goals and ideas, I am running around
in circles, and hence running aimlessly.
Often times, when I am running so aimlessly trying to find my way, I end
up settling for the peanut butter sandwich rather than the lasagna soup the
Lord so desperately wants me to have with him.
Discipline involves being
grounded in the Word. Jesus commanded his disciples to be with him.
"Abide in me, and I will abide in
you. Just as the branch cannot produce fruit by itself unless it abides in the
vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” John 15:4.
We are commanded to abide in Christ. When we
commit and discipline ourselves as Paul says to hear and listen to the Lord in
His Word, we have purpose. We are no longer running aimlessly. It’s then we are able to produce the fruit we
were created to bear. We don’t have to
settle for the peanut butter sandwich, we can enjoy the abundant life and the
lasagna soup. J
