Discipline
I wish it were easier to tell the difference between God’s discipline that I should rejoice in, and misfortune that I should lament. But I guess that’s a false dichotomy. There’s no reason to believe they can’t be one in the same, especially if I take seriously what Paul wrote to the Romans:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
- Romans 8:28 ESV
Or what’s written in Hebrews:
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
- Hebrews 12:7 ESV
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
- Hebrews 12:11 ESV
I’ve long heard verses like that and responded with puffed-up resolve; ready to face the pain, trusting it’d be over in a little while and that I’d be better for it.
I don’t know why I think those seasons will be short-lived. Maybe it’s because the only frame of reference I have for imagining a post-discipline life is the ephemeral one I have now, bound by flesh and a few decades.
But there is no guarantee that a bout of discipline will end before my life does. That “peaceful fruit of righteousness” might’ve been reserved for eternity all along and I’ll need to die before I see it.
That sure sucks to think about when the pain I feel is here now. It’s hard to muster that same feeling of resolve when I’m in the thick of it, with no sense for when (or how) it’ll end.
A part of J.I. Packer’s Knowing God strikes a nerve with me. He writes about the years of discipline God laid upon Jacob to mold him into a man in whose legacy we live today.
But God in his wisdom had also resolved to instill true religion into Jacob himself. Jacob’s whole attitude to life was ungodly and needed changing; Jacob must be weaned away from trust in his own cleverness to dependence upon God, and he must be made to abhor the unscrupulous double-dealing which came so naturally to him. Jacob, therefore, must be made to feel his own utter weakness and foolishness, must be brought to such complete self-distrust that he would no longer try to get on by exploiting others. Jacob’s self-reliance must go, once and for all. With patient wisdom (for God always waits for the right time) God led Jacob to the point at which he could stamp the required sense of impotent helplessness indelibly and decisively on Jacob’s soul.
God took decades to complete the task in Jacob’s life. It was long, often dull, and arduous. I don’t like thinking about how long it’ll take to wean me of my own self-reliance, and what kind of life that’ll remain when it’s finished. But if I really believe that not a single hardship can happen outside His sovereignty, that every little annoyance and searing pain are being stitched together for my good, and that discipline is a sign of His love, I ought to praise Him for it. I do not I have a choice, and I don’t want one. If I love Him, I will do it, even if the fruit won't be seen in this life. I’m just lucky I’m not going in totally blind. Some of the purpose has been revealed:
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
- Romans 5:3-5 ESV
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
- Psalm 119:71
Getting that into my head makes other passages easier to swallow, like this one from Jeremiah. Judah has been exiled to Babylon, punished for their years of rebellion against God. But He speaks with a tone of hope for the future.
But fear not, O Jacob my servant, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid. Fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the Lord, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
- Jeremiah 46:27-28 ESV
It does not feel natural to look forward to a promise of punishment. But it’s uncomfortably consistent with how other Scripture juxtaposes love and discipline. Once you abandon the silly belief that love is always comforting, it ironically starts to feel that way.