Disciplines over Convenience

First, we accepted the quick pace of life by falling into the convenience of immediacy. Fast food fills our families because our busy schedules have dictated that we grab a meal quickly, without hesitating over what we are putting into our bodies. We accepted this because being busy had become our new norm, and Mom did not make time to make a healthy meal. Dad did not protect the family from over-scheduling themselves. Spending time going from one event to the next to help the kids learn the discipline of a sport, while sacrificing meaningful time with face-to-face connection over a good meal, has become the family's norm.

Second, we have allowed the family to grow distant from one another through screens —phone screens, tablet screens, television screens, and computer screens. Within many families, conversations with strangers online pull each of us toward finding our purpose, while those in our homes have no idea who we are. The practice of the new TikTok fad takes up our time. The desire to become an influencer drives us to refine our arguments and hobbies and to fulfill our dreams. We have sacrificed face-to-face conversations for the purposeless offer of our souls to online obsessions.

Even attending church has become a self-centered enterprise. Families look to be part of a ministry that offers each family member the product that keeps them entertained. Churches have not disappointed. Each is attempting to create a ministry that provides everything each family member needs to fill their worship center—developing the best children's ministry, devoting themselves to capturing the teens with activities that keep them happy while mom and dad go into service free of the chatter of their young ones. Women's ministry keeps its ladies occupied with gatherings that help them get out of the house. Men gather and talk about sports, hunting, and their workloads. All this, of course, showered with some Scripture.

How many of us do not bring our Bibles to church anymore?

How often does your family sit around the family room to do devotions, read the bible, or pray together? Life for many families is as separated spiritually during the week as we are in the perfect church that has something for everyone.

Then there is the era of quick weight loss in our day. Advertisement over the latest pill, shot, surgery that can bring the joy of the enviable body of our twenties. Our doctors are so quick to get whatever benefit from the pharmaceutical industry that they push the latest pill for depression or weight loss. We still spend more money in the beauty industry, so we get our accolades today.

In every area that touches us, we stay busy and self-absorbed. We have given up nothing, only gained that which detours us from the actual value of life, picking up our crosses and following Jesus, obediently. We have filled our schedules, but we have not disciplined our lives. When is the last time you gave up an event to stay home, have a good meal, and play a game as a family? When was the last time you had everyone in the family get from behind their screens and have face-to-face conversations, getting silly and serious with one another? When is the last time you left church and discussed the things God spoke to your hearts from the service?

Busy, quick, easy, and self-aggrandizement destroys discipline. If we are never called to sacrifice for what is better for our souls, we are not going to ever train ourselves for righteousness. Unfortunately, many of us do not practice any disciplines that help us form the image of Jesus in our lives. Even in the political arena, hearing the argument that we need "illegals" because "they will do the jobs Americans won't," feeds into my premise.

If we are too pretentious to do jobs that we must give away to those who break our laws, justifying our laws being broken, why would we discipline ourselves to do things that don't bring us broader acclaim? Instead, we chase the American dream at the cost of our souls and families. And we blend into the world's system, missing opportunities to become Jesus to the watching world. The latter takes discipline, takes sacrifice, takes denial. The Holy Spirit waits, grieved, for us to stop, repent, and surrender to His work.

The easy has replaced self-denial.

The self-absorbed realities have replaced surrender.

Quick scripture passages on a home screen have replaced working to memorize the Word.

Audio Bibles have replaced precious quiet time with the Lord.

Diet pills have replaced choosing healthy meals and exercise.

Family life suffers from all the things I outlined. Life was not meant to be convenient. It was meant to be disciplined. Church was not meant to be a place of separation, but to bring the family together to learn and fill our weeks with conversation about the Lord. This does not mean we should not have a children's church or a youth group. It means, as a family, we must discipline ourselves so that these things bring us together in conversations during our week, which fosters connection. Our phones were not meant to replace our Bibles, our families, or to bring strangers into our lives as friends. We were meant for real connection to feed our souls and leave loneliness behind. Our lives are filled, while our souls remain empty.

Yes, many of these things have their place and time. But we have used them to replace quality time with the Lord, spouses spending time together, friends calling and chatting, children learning to sit and listen, healthy choices, and sacrifice. We have satisfied our flesh, but many of us have unsatiated souls, are unhappy, have busy families, and have addictions to unhealthy practices.

Jesus tells us we must deny ourselves. We do that by recognizing, "You are not your own" (1 Corinthians 6:19). We are managers of everything we have; we must manage all things well. Life and family must be managed by the dictates and disciplines of Scripture, not by the nuances that creep in from the world. The devil keeps us busy, making us think we must find the perfect church to make each member of the family satisfied, look great, and be physically attractive to everyone, and never sacrifice "happy" for "holy."

Choosing spiritual disciplines in our lives may not make everyone happy, because the focus is not on keeping our children busy, getting the most likes, creating the best YouTube page, or even being the thinnest artificially; the goal is obedience to God. God is waiting for those who by discipline became trained in righteousness, not those who sat in a church, had the best player on a team, or achieved their dreams absent ever opening their bible, getting on their knees to pray, wrestling over memorizing Scripture or meditating day and night, and going from a babe on milk to become a child of God mature in your faith eating solid food, making an eternal difference in the world.

Hebrews 5:13-14 "For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. ¹⁴ But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

Full age only happens when we set aside the world next door for the eternal, that is, treasures in heaven. A life disciplined to say "no" to convenience but "yes" to what God commands will look otherworldly to a world that needs people who look like Jesus, not like them.