Wednesday, May 18, 2011

(Ortberg, page 55, Par. 2)

"A disciplined follower of Jesus--a "disciple"--is not someone who has " mastered the disciplines" and never misses a daily regimen of spiritual exercises. A disciplined follower of Jesus is someone who discerns when laughter, gentleness, silence, healing words, or prophetic indignation is called for, and offers it promptly, effectively, and lovingly."

i really like this book. a lot. it's answer to prayer in a lot of different ways. its cool how God uses books to speak to us, how humble is that! its rad.

im only on page 55 but i love what ive read so far and im excited to finish the book.

relating to the quote above, this is revolutionary to me and now, looking back, it's so obvious this is what discipline is. i always thought of discipline as like rigid and unenjoyable and boot-campish. i thought of discipline as cleaning my room on thursday every week from 8-9am. and reading my bible everyday from 5:15- 6:25am and then eating cereal from 6:26- 6:32 (by the way i tried a new cereal this week, the eggo waffle one...bomb.com) and yeah i thought of discipline as that. and then as far as spiritual things go, if i felt i needed discipline in listening.... i would try my hardest never to talk. and if i wanted to work on hearing words from the Spirit, i would forcefully and very frustratingly try and play psychic with everyone i saw (embarrassing i know) and if i needed to focus on being light hearted i would find myself stressed cause i wasnt light-hearted ALL THE TIME. it's a great revelation and perspective that discipline is learning how to be discerning when to act and behave a certain way. and that way is centered around what others need at that particular moment of time.


i also loved the concept of "training and not trying." im not just going to go "try" and surf a 100ft wave. now most likely i would be a natural and get a massive barrell and be fine, but if i did fall.... i would surely drown. the way to become a big wave surfer is not to just TRY, but to traiiiiiiiin. to swim and practice holding your breath and all that stuff. same with following Jesus. gooooood stuff. love you all. so pumped for the retreat. im at work i gotta go clean the coffee maker now! until next time

6 comments:

  1. zach, you're so rad. i know you know i think that about you already, but you just are haha. i really like this idea, too. i totally see this in you. like we were talking about in the car yesterday, you grew up accumulating the head knowledge, but now you are practicing the knowledge that you learned. that is what it is all about. keep it zach, you are planting so many seeds and bringing so many people closer to God and into a more clear view of Him. lots of love to you!

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  2. "bomb.com" <--- I proceeded to laugh & tell Dannah how highly I think of you. Dannah proceeded to say how great you are. lol :) Thanks for that moment.

    mmm training & not trying. I liked that concept too :) Please never drown.

    You make me smile. Have a wonderful day. May you continue to learn more of God's truths through Ortberg & your day-to-day. Praying for you.

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  3. I love this book too! And I love when you (and the book) talks about training and not trying. You have to train to become good at something. No one is good at something by merely trying. If that was true, then we would never have to practice. Could you imagine not practicing? I would have been terrible at basketball :-( Thanks for your insight!

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  4. very cool, zach. i love that quote. i think, like you were saying, so often we think there are black and white answers on how to follow Jesus. but the beauty and challenge of following Jesus, are that His ways are in the subtleties of life, the nuances of our relationships. and that makes our Creator all the more real, and much less of a dictator--it brings Him much closer.

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  5. One word. S.P.A.C.E.P.E.T.S haha. Anyways. Thanks for the quote I think it is something good to reflect on. I definitely wrote it down and saved it.

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  6. So good bro. So good!
    Lord, will you help us receive your Grace when we try and error, try and error, try and error, try and error in learning and failing to walk obediently and disciplined with and towards you. Can you lift the false understanding of one day "getting it" and let us know that we are "getting it" daily as we press in and fall and get up and fall and get up and fall.

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