The Death Of Discipline

As I was working out today, God (or the banana I had before I left home) revealed a little something to me. I was peddling a stationary bike and was warming up to the long workout that lay ahead. As I was thinking, a realization that I really didn’t live a distinctly disciplined life was weighing on me (looking at my stomach, it really does weigh on me!) and the old argument that I have with myself crept in. The argument that I play with is that a disciplined life would cost so much more, would limit my freedom, spontaneity and passion. I also didn’t want to become a rigid old fuddy-duddy that couldn’t have any fun in life. That is the picture that I allow myself to paint of a disciplined life. Then it occurred to me that a disciplined life doesn’t cost any more, it simply costs different. To be disciplined isn’t the "anti-passion." And the thought/phrase that I hung onto was “Discipline is the soil from which passion springs.” And the picture that I have is that discipline is the necessary dead things (IE: leaves, grass, bugs, twigs) that is turned into the fertile soil that passion springs to life from. The less “mulch” of discipline the less viable our passion for Jesus living will thrive.
Now the hard part: Retraining my mind to take the new info and make it practical. I read a blog recently that said “following Jesus is 20% information and 80% application of that information.
I pray for application.
I pray for discipline.
I pray for passion.
Pray for me.