Why discipline?

You want to be the very best version of yourself you can possibly be. You want to be bigger, stronger, smarter, and tougher than you were yesterday. You want health and happiness to abound in your life. Because you want to know God’s Word so well that it falls from your lips and informs your life without your realizing it. Because you desire strong, deep, and lasting relationships. Because you want to be the very best father you could ever be to your children. Because you want to be the best husband you’re capable of being to your wife. 

For all these reasons and a hundred more, you choose discipline. 

It’s not an easy path to walk. It involves getting up earlier, working harder and forcing yourself to do things you’d rather skip. But in the end, it’s the only path that’ll get you even close to the most important things in your life. Things that make hardship seem trivial. 

Discipline doesn't care

Discipline doesn’t care if you’re tired. 

It doesn’t care if you were up all night. 

Or if you don’t quite feel up to it. 

Discipline doesn’t care about these things because life and your enemies don’t either. 

It wants you to be ready and equipped for when they come calling, so it pushes you through discomfort. 

Discipline may seem like an insensitive jerk when it tells you to get up early or to do one more rep, but in the end, you’ll find that he’s had your best in mind all along. 

Fear Is A Poor Motivator

Fear works. You can use it to get things done and to exert control over yourself and others. 

That doesn’t mean it’s the best or most effective strategy. 

You could walk from New York to LA, but there are more efficient and effective modes of transportation.

Fear based obedience is like walking. It might get you there, but it’s a giant waste of energy and a poor motivator. 

If you’re using fear as your primary motive, here are three effects you should see: 

1. Your motivation will lose power over time. Fear is an intense and draining emotion. You can only deal with it for so long. It eventually becomes exhausting. Slowly, you become too tired to care and indifferent to what happens. Fear based motivation is short-lived.

2. Admitting, learning and moving on from mistakes will be more difficult. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to do things wrong. That’s life. If you’re motivated by fear, you’ll have difficulty owning up to it when you do. You’ll fear reprisal and punishment for not living up to the standard. You’ll be tempted to rationalize and shift blame. 

3. You’ll have trouble enduring hardships. You’ll think that life is unfair and that you’re owed something better when difficulty comes. In other words, despair and bitterness will be the result of suffering if your motivation is fear based. 

Fear is a wimpy motivator. It’s not strong enough to carry you through. Fear might get you moving, but you’re going to need something more to reach the finish line. 

What’s that something more? 

Grace.  

Everything you have and everything you are is a result of grace. You don’t deserve it. It is a gift from God. 

When understood, this should become the greatest and most sustaining motivator in life. 

It is the complete opposite of fear. 

Grace’s becomes a stronger motivator over time. The more you realize and understand that everything in your life is a gift the more grateful you become. The more grateful you are, the more motivated you are to honor that gift with your life. 

Grace provides ground for you to own up to your mistakes without fear. If you're saved by grace, through faith, and everything in your life is because of God’s mercy, then you have nothing to fear from admitting your weakness. You’ll be more likely to share your struggles, learn from, and conquer them. 

Grace will carry you through the hard times. It will be the stone your feet find beneath the quick sand and troubles of this life. It will hold you up and keep you from drowning in despair. If God owns everything, then you are a steward. How you steward things displays your gratitude to God. 

What are you most looking forward to in 2017?

It’s a brand new year. The lights and excitement of the Christmas season linger in the air, and everyone is enthralled with the excitement a new year brings. Most of us are beyond ready to turn the page on a new year. Just about everyone I talk to has the same word to describe 2016, hard. It was a year smeared with the most tumultuous and interesting presidential election any of us has seen in our lifetimes, and we all feel relatively dirty as a result.

2016 was also a year of immense personal hardships. Friends and family alike have shared stories of loss, pain and disappointment that are too numerous to count. My wife and I are no different. Family members were in and out of the hospital, loved ones passed away, and searing loss darkened our door in the form of a miscarriage. It was simply a difficult year.

We walked through the lowest of lows and lived to tell the tale because of the Lord’s faithfulness. He showed up and showed off in so many ways the last twelve months. The Lord’s goodness, faithfulness and the hope we have in Him have us chomping at the bit to see what 2017 has up its sleeve.

There are so many things to look forward to, but chief among them is seeing the birth of our first baby boy. It’s still sinking in but in a few short months my whole world will change in an instant as I look into the eyes and hold the little guy for the first time. I can’t wait. Who will he look like? What color eyes will he have? What about his hair? What will he enjoy? Who will he become? While some of these questions won’t be answered in 2017, the road to discovering what the Lord is up to in not just Hudson’s life but ours begins in a few short months.

I’ve shared what has me most excited about next year, now it’s your turn. What are you most looking forward to in 2017?