Shadowboxing

This year I could see myself slowly gain weight, but I didn't worry about it, because I was intentionally focusing on my starved inner-self. I didn’t work myself into a frenzy worrying about the clothes that didn't fit me anymore, instead I mindfully switched to loose dresses, tights, airy salwars, sweatpants, and basically anything that was comfortable. I knew that even though I was not at my best on the outside, my inner-being was flourishing.

However, when I eventually weighed as much as I did at my ninth month of pregnancy, I told The Lord “Ok Abba now I need Your help to work on this”. The day I decided that I've got to exercise, I came across these verses in my daily reading:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… " - 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

I realized God and I were on the same page and that it was a confirmation to start taking care of my body as well.

In one of his recent posts, Pastor Craig Groeschel said, “Discipline is the bridge between who you are and who you want to become”. Most of us practice a certain degree of discipline in our everyday lives. It may be with regard to school, college, work, self-care or running the home. We usually want to get things done in our day and we put a certain amount of effort into waking up on time, prioritizing tasks or even making checklists. This year, owing to these unforeseen circumstances, many of us are adjusting to a whole new way of doing things. Either because of having to work from home, attend online classes, or just having your spouse/children home all the time. Some of us have gotten a hang of it, and some are still in the process, but I'm certain all of us can recall instances in our lives where we disciplined ourselves to achieve something.

In my life too, there have been times when having a discipline had served me well. I would like to take you through two of them...

The first was when I was doing my Masters, and like most Masters degree programs are, it was competitive, difficult and demanding on my time. I would leave home early in the morning and get back late at night and could barely find the time to be still before God. I then decided that I didn’t want to go to college without first hearing from God and talking to Him i.e., reading my Bible and praying. There were days the lectures would start by 7:30am, and factoring in the hour long commute to college meant that I would have to wake up at 5:00am, if not before, to get my quiet-time and then get ready to leave. That was hard, but the thought of not spending time with God would break my heart and make me feel sad the whole day, so I trained myself to wake up early enough to get my quiet-time in. This discipline was fueled by love and honor, and the two years I spent doing my Masters were filled with such great memories and testimonies.

The second instance where discipline helped me achieve my goal was after I became a mom. When we become a new 'anything’, whether it’s because of a new job, promotion, family or a move to a new location - there is a certain pressure we feel, an angst about how we would perform or manage and we tend to lean heavily into those areas which we can control. When I had a baby, I struggled to manage a newborn and felt I needed to discipline myself in some area - in other words, I wanted to feel in control of something. So, a year after my son was born, I decided to get fit. I slowly and steadily trained my body to lose all the pregnancy weight. And in time, I achieved my goal! Truth be told, I surpassed it, and it was a feeling of achievement for a moment. But I soon realized that it was part of a downward spiral of discontentment and frustration caused by the loss of control over my life as a new mommy. So, what fueled that discipline was mainly resentment and unrest.

Having practiced discipline both those times, I can assure you, the intention behind each makes a world of difference. Although I achieved my purpose in both cases, one gave me a superficial sense of satisfaction that left me empty, whereas the other gave me true contentment and filled me. I guess we can all agree the work is always better when done from the inside out.

We need to ask ourselves these two crucial questions before we take up any form of discipline and training:

Who do I want to become?

What is the fuel/source of my discipline?

We neither want to start something and then leave it halfway because we didn’t have clarity on where we wanted to go with it, nor do we want to be fueled by the wrong feelings or emotions to drive our chosen area of discipline. So, let us consider these two aspects as a foundation to help us channel our discipline effectively.

Apostle Paul says “Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air” – 1 Corinthians 9:26-27

Discipline is vital to every individual’s life, but to a child of God, it is the only way to become a true Disciple of Christ. The discipline of our spirit, soul, mind and body is fundamental to our walk with God. Each of these areas need its due attention because together it makes us who we are.

The New Living Translation of the same verse puts it this way -

So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. - 1 Corinthians 9:26-27

Having started my own journey back to some old disciplines and engaging in new ones, I want to encourage all of us, in the last quarter of this year, to set aside time to diligently focus on disciplines that are wholesome and rooted in goodness, so we can live our lives with purpose and victory.

“…Let each of us run in such a way as to get the prize”

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