If all has gone well, I am at the last day of a month free of alcohol. No beer. No wine. (some whine) There was no particular reasons for taking on this fast. I am trying a fast from something each month, just to see if I can. April – alcohol. I did jokingly tell a friend that if I were in AA I would get my month chip today. It is about the discipline, and I am looking for ways to discipline myself which leads to a better person, a better teacher, a better disciple, a better Christian.
One of the phrases that I discovered along the way was “discipline beats creativity;” that putting your hand to the plow each day is more important than thinking about, dreaming about putting your hand to the plow. And I am trying to apply that to my writing. I fully embrace “writing only happens by writing,” but I spend hours dreaming about what I will write. Great novel. Research article. Daily blogs. And not necessarily hours actually writing. I whine more than I write about not having the time to write, but I seem to have enough time to whine! Discipline.
The notion that seems to be bouncing around in my head is that the global church, the local congregation, the body of believers that claim Christ as their Lord and example lack discipline. That we are disciples without the discipline needed as we follow. We claim to like the things that Jesus said, but we are not so keen on actually doing any of them. So rattling about in my noggin, is what if we were less creative as Christians and more disciplined? Not sure that’s going to market all that well.
But it might just change the world.
It is definitely a thin place.
searchingforthinplaces 