‎"With self-discipline, most anything is possible." -Theodore Roosevelt


I think discipline in one's life is one of the things most lacking in our culture today.  When you think of all the negative things that come from lack of discipline (anger, weight gain, being unhealthy, debt...I could go on and on) and all the good things that come from discipline (peace, health, wealth, etc.) it's amazing that we don't emphasize it more.  So I've taken to re-reading the book, Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster.  He opens with these words:


Superficiality is the curse of our age.  The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem.  The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.

With so many good books out there to read, it takes a lot to commit time to a book I've already read.  But this book is so practical that I know I'll get something new from it that I didn't get the last time I read it.  

The first discipline is meditation on the Scripture.  A couple of highlights:

Moses learned, albeit with many vacillations and detours, how to hear God's voice and obey his word.  In fact, Scripture witnesses that god spoke to Moses "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Ex. 33:11).  There was a sense of intimate relationship, of communion.  As a people, however, the Israelites were not prepared for such intimacy.  Once they learned a little about god, they realized that being in his presence was risky business and told Moses so: "You speak to us and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:19).  In this way they could maintain religious respectability without the attendant risks.

The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between.  In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves.  Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change.

And where do we meet God?  Where do we come into his presence?  In His Word.  The author goes on to suggest practical ways to meditate upon God's Word.  I got a least one tip that I want to put into practice.  Good thoughts.