The Sidewalk

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Philippians 3:7-16

If you don't discipline yourself someone else will have to discipline you.

Discipline is the habit and process of putting things in the right order, whether it is your time, knowledge or training. The more you discipline yourself to use what you have gained in the past, the less you have to rely on someone else’s past experiences to guide you forward. The only present purpose for the past is to determine how you will live now and in the future. Everything you have gained up to this point in your life serves the purpose of leading you into a growing knowledge of Christ. You cannot discipline the past. You can only use your experiences in the past to discipline yourself now so that you can fully know Christ and grow in that knowledge. The more a child disciplines himself from the discipline given to him by his parents, the less he will need the discipline of his parents to live rightly. You can discipline yourself so that others don’t have to and so that you are able to flourish in the life God has given you.

If you  keep finding the same hole in the sidewalk, perhaps you need to find a different sidewalk to walk on.

The holes in the sidewalk don’t move, and the more you know the sidewalk, the more you are aware of where the holes are. Discipline is using your knowledge of where those holes are in order to direct your steps forward. As you grow in your discipline of avoiding the holes in the sidewalk, your walk becomes easier. However, a more disciplined approach would be to leave behind your knowledge of the holes on the sidewalk and find a new sidewalk to walk on. Thus as Paul says everything he gained by knowing where the holes in the sidewalk were was useless—counted as loss—when he found out there was a new sidewalk to walk on—the sidewalk that lead to Christ. You can use discernment in your knowledge of the holes on the sidewalk to walk well or you can use greater discernment and walk on the sidewalk that leads to Christ.

You can only focus on one thing in life.

You can only walk on one sidewalk at a time. The sidewalk you walk on changes the way you see the world around you. If you’re walking on a sidewalk full of holes, your focus will be on the holes and avoiding them. If you’re walking on a sidewalk without holes, you will be free to use your peripheral vision to respond to the world around you. Either way, you will be walking forward on one sidewalk and the cats, dogs and paperboy will interrupt you along the way. It will be a lot easier to handle the distraction and keep your focus if you are on the sidewalk without any holes. Discipline will help you keep your focus as you practice staying on the right sidewalk and avoiding the familiar sidewalk with holes.