I recently read something by writer Bill Crowder. He talks about how he saw members of a
football team wearing a T-shirt with this slogan: “Every day you must choose:
the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”
Think about that statement. The latter part of it is fairly easy to grasp; we all
know at one time or another “the pain of regret.” Proverbs 22:8 says, “He who sows iniquity
will reap sorrow” (NKJV).
But what does “the pain of discipline” mean? The way I took it is this: the accompanying
pain that sometimes comes with doing the right thing. I’m not sure how many of you have given this
any thought, but there is a certain pain in choosing to say no to sin, because
it looks fun and exciting. Rick Ferguson,
in his fantastic book “The Servant Principle” writes,
“The Bible does not deny that sin is fun and pleasurable
for a season [he’s referring to Hebrews 11:24-26]. However, the ultimate results of sin are
deadly. If you are sinning, you are not
looking to the future. You are not
seeing the long-term consequences. Don’t
sell out your long-term future for a short-term pleasure. Take the long look.”
I think Christian Artist Steve Wiggins provides us with the
bottom line. According to my Internet
research, Wiggins was a part of the Contemporary Christian music group “Big
Tent Revival” until the group disbanded in 2000. Wiggins once wrote, “Sometimes doing it God's
way means doing it the hard way. God’s
will is sometimes the path of patience and sometimes the path of pain.”
I do believe that the pain of doing the right thing (or
“the pain of discipline” as Crowder put it) is far better than enduring the
pain of regret. So I just want to
encourage everyone reading - including the man who wrote this - choose to do
the right thing, no matter how difficult it may be sometimes.
Kevin Bauer
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