the value of discipline

vli lecture #1 -- "The Leader's Self Understanding & Spiritual Formation"

apparently consistency and discipline are the keys to a deep and intimate relationship with god.

what am i supposed to do about that? when i am dead, i will be consistenly dead, until then, the lack of consistency and discipline will continue to define and dominate my life.

stories about other people who used to be undisciplined but now live a life of regimented precision and glorious spiritual intimacy are about as helpful as stories of people who have lost weight by just deciding to do so and simply following some program.

i had a teacher in junior high who i have come to see as brilliant. in his tests, insetad of selecting "true" or "false", you were asked to select answers which were the "least true" or "most false". i'm asking myself questions of that category now. which of the following are the "least true"

• god hates me and on purpose created me so it would be difficult for me to be intimate with him to save himself from having to be close to me.
• i am a loser who just needs to suck it up and get with the program
• disciplined people write books, so of course all books about spiritual formation are written from that point of view. the person who has found a path of intimacy that does not require discipline also can't write a book about it. but the way is out there, if i can find it.
• i have a handicap, similar to blindness or lack of a limb. i have to learn to live in a world where i am not normal, and find my own measures of success, and try not to get discouraged or bitter.

Comments

[Sis]

#1 is least true (Have you read Screwtape lately?), but I'm stumped on most false. 3 and 4 are both good candidates. Sorry, 2. You're just sort of truish false. By the way, I think it runs in the family.

[Chris(tine)]

Michael - you've lost me on the dichotomy of "least true" vs "most false", I'm afraid... How about a better fifth choice (to maybe add to some measure of #3): "incredibly gifted and intelligent person who thankfully doesn't think inside the same boxes that most other people do".

[Chris(tine)]

Michael, had to come back and add this quote that I read tonight from anj (http://bestandworst.typepad.com/bestandworst/2005/09/truth_of_story.html):

"from Frederick Buechner, A Room Called Remember, page 48:

We may tell stories about ourselves as well as about other people but not, for the most part, our real stories, not stories about what lies beneath all our other problems, which is the problem of being human, the problem of trying to hold fast somehow to Christ when much of the time, both in ourselves and in our world, it is as if Christ had never existed. Because all the peddlers of God’s word have in common, I think: they tell what costs them least to tell and what will gain them most; and to tell the story of who we really are, and of the battle between light and dark, between belief and unbelief, between sin and grace that is waged within us all, costs plenty and may not gain us anything, we’re afraid, but an uneasy silence and a fishy stare. "

[Nina]

Gotta jump in here and say without a doubt that #1 is the most false of all. God does not hate what He has created...He does not hate one of His precious sons....EVER.

BTW, we're ALL losers, so welcome to the club. :)