Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

A Few Grown Men

Home
Family, Parenting and Religion
Pick the Pain You’d Rather Have–You’ve Gotta Choose One

Pick the Pain You’d Rather Have–You’ve Gotta Choose One

Last updated on: August 26, 2013 at 1:01 am by marcusbrotherton

Pick the Pain You’d Rather Have–You’ve Gotta Choose One 2013-07-19T10:37:08-06:00 marcusbrotherton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A despised word nowadays is discipline.

Yet that’s a word that needs to live.

Its fuller definition involves much more than putting a child in a timeout or sending a teen to the principal’s office.

Discipline, in its truest form, is an activity that improves a skill.

Success in business requires discipline.

A gold medal hockey team is disciplined in its performance.

The challenge as an author is to sell discipline when modern publishers want you to put hip twists on things. Bestselling books are ripe with quick fixes, and, although the benefits of discipline are big, they are seldom felt immediately.

“Discipline—ugh!” an editor e-mailed me recently. “That’s your grandfather’s word. Discipline connotes pain. Can’t you find a better way to say what you mean?”

I pushed back on his counsel. The word might be stodgy, even pejorative, but I’m a fan of the word myself and of the concepts behind it.

Here’s what I mean. Sure, discipline involves pain. It’s not always comfortable or convenient. But pain is inevitable in life.

And every man must pick the pain he’d rather have.

You either pick the pain of DISCIPLINE.

Or you pick the pain of REGRET.

There are no other options.

Consider the following:

· Discipline wakes a man at 6:30 a.m. to go for his 2 mile jog. It’s cold outside and dark, and he’d rather stay in bed. Sure, that’s painful.

· Regret lands him in the hospital at age 52 from a heart-attack.

· Discipline permits a man to let a stupid driver fly by him unimpeded on the freeway. Sure, it grates on a man’s ego. Hey—that louse needs to be taught a lesson. It takes restraint and a cool head to not floor it, swerve around that muttonhead, and flip him the bird.

· Regret lands both drivers in the morgue.

· Discipline installs filtering software on man’s computer. It’s inconvenient, sure, and might slow the computer. It might be embarrassing to explain why you want to safeguard your integrity like that.

· Regret sees a man’s self-respect disintegrate and his marriage fall apart.

Catch my drift? In this day and age of lighthearted masculinity and short-range living, it’s not popular anymore to advocate discipline. But you can’t avoid pain. You can only pick the one you want.

One pain is preemptive. The other operates in hindsight.

One pain moves a man forward. The other sets him back.

One is wise. The other is foolish.

Discipline: it’s a perfectly good word. Better than regret.

I say embrace the word.

Definitely not a painful read. Enjoy …

Shifty’s War

Leadership

men's ministry

Previous Post

August 23, 2013

For Men Only - How to get Your Sexual Needs Met

Next Post

August 28, 2013 Are Christians obsessed with sex?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Giveaway Book Review Bullying Career Christmas Church devotion Discipleship Donald Miller Drugs & Alcohol Easter eternity evangelism Family food giving thanks God humor James H. Pence Jonathan McKee Leadership love Marcus Brotherton marriage masculinity men's ministry men's studies movies music Parenting Pastoring patriotism persecution pilgrim politics pop culture Prayer Prison Ministry prosperity religion Saul secularism sex Social Media Television Thanksgiving Uncategorized women Worship youth culture

Select a Month December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Daniel's three friends refuse to worship, resulting in their persecution?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A bronze snake A golden image A cedar pole A Persian king