"LET'S BEGIN AGAIN"

Now there have probably been, maybe, two....HUNDRED other times that I've started "exercise plans" in my life. And, obviously, every time I started, at some point I stopped! I could have looked back at that history and thought, "Why even bother? I won't stick with it this time either!" But I knew that was the wrong attitude. So Ijust looked at myself in the mirror and said, "O.K. Let's begin again."

Now have you ever thought about how, in everything that's good for us, there's a bit of a paradox - something contrary to what you'd expect to be true? I mean, take exercise. The more you exercise - which is using energy - the more energy you end up having! The more you use your mind...the more it can retain. The more you give the more you receive. The more you love, the more you are loved. "Those who lose their lives will gain life." It's really a Biblical, spiritual principle that doing things that seem to take something away from us actually ends up giving us a great deal. What it really comes down to is the paradox that true personal happiness and freedom comes to us only through self-discipline.

Last week we talked about "spiritual renewal." This morning I want us to consider spiritual progress...moving forward on our spiritual journey with Christ through this world. That's what the Apostle Paul was talking about in the reading we heard from 1st Corinthians. He was comparing "discipleship" - living as a follower, a student of Jesus Christ - to being like athletes who discipline themselves and train so that they can perform their sport with purpose and persistence. Athletes "progress" through self-discipline.

Now Paul's example is a little bit of a paradox in itself. We don't "compete" for God's love and we can't do anything to "win" salvation through Christ. Ephesians 2:8, for example, makes it quite clear that we are "saved by grace...and not by works." But in our response to that love and life that God has freely given us, as disciples of Christ we are to go at life with the purpose and persistence of a winning athlete...and that takes self- discipline.

I don't know about you, but for many years I was pretty rebellious toward things that seemed to call for self-discipline. There's something in most of us that thinks that somehow we're being robbed of freedom and "controlled" if we allow ourselves to be too disciplined. We're often like mules...mentioned in Psalm 32 that we heard this morning and like my Dad has told me about. He grew up on a farm and the mules they used to plow the fields with could be taught some basic directions. They could learn that commands like, "Gee" and "Haw" meant to turn left or right and, of course, "Whoa" meant, well..."Whoa!" But you know that expression: "stubbom as a mule"? Just'cause they knew the commands didn't mean they'd always respond to them! Sounds a little like us sometimes, huh!

Somehow I don't think we're meant to be mules for Jesus! Christian discipleship involves allowing ourselves to learn and be guided...and involves taking on self-discipline in the process. Discipleship is living with purpose and persistence and that, in itself, involves self-control.

Consider St. Augustine. While weeding his garden one morning, he was asked, "What would you do if you knew you were going to die before the sun went down?" Without a moment's hesitation, he responded, "I would continue hoeing my garden." St. Augustine wasn't running through life randomly, jumping from this to that, never being sure who he was or what his life was about. He was a disciple. That was his purpose in living. And so time, or the lack ofit, wouldn't alter his life's course at all. In seeking after God...in following the leading of Jesus...we have a purpose that actually opens up a wealth - an eternal kingdom, in fact - of possibility and opportunity and fulfillment. All we have to do, as we live out this purpose of seeking after God, is to be persistent in our commitment.

Persistence doesn't mean we'll never fall down or slow down, but it does mean we "begin again" and keep going. I once knew this women who told me the story of how her partner had been a police officer. And her partner went to participate in a kind of"police Olympics." She signed up for the 60-yard dash and they where using actual "starting blocks" which she had never run out of before. So she got set for the race and the gun went off, but when she tried to run out of the blocks, she fell down. She came home later and told my fiiend what happened. My friend sympathized but then asked, "So what place did you end up coming in?" Her partner said, "Oh, I didn't bother to run. Ijust walked away." She made no attempt to get up and run...she just quit. That story should make any of us stop and ask ourselves, "How easily do you give up? What are you willing to try again for...to fight for...to sacrifice for?"

If we are to truly be disciples - students and followers of Jesus Christ - we are going to find ourseives, over and over, coming back to God and saying, "Can we begin again?" The self-imposed spiritual disciplines that true discipleship demands are not easy and it's a rare person who will never get off track or become distracted or trip and fall down. But that's not the point. What matters is that we always come back and start again. Someone very wise told me that the single key to a spiritually disciplined life is one phrase that we say to God: "Let's begin again."

It's a paradoxical spiritual truth that disciplining ourselves actually leads to freedom and happiness. I was discussing this idea just the other day with a long-time member of this church, Susan Lukwago. Susan is a very disciplined person. I asked her the question, "Susan, what has all this self-discipline done for you?"

She has a structured, consistent prayer life, she runs every morning, she is particular about what she eats most of the time, she works and serves this church and is currently close to completing her Ph.D. It would almost make you sick, wouldn't it? Except that, if you know Susan, you know that she is one of the happiest, most loving and spiritually free people you could ever meet!

Now hear me clearly. I'm not saying or even suggesting that we all should be just like Susan. Not at all. We each need to be fully and exactly who we are, with all of our uniquenesses and individual qualities. But each of us, if we are to truly follow Christ, must examine our lives and our hearts to see where we need to have more self-discipline.

For some of us, perhaps it's still in those areas we've discussed over the past few weeks: prayer, service or giving. For many of us, we need to become more disciplined with our physical and mental health. Today's trendy "mind, body, spirit" connection is really not news. Jesus was teaching and living that concept 2000 years ago.

All I can tell you is that our lives are not meant to be "out of control." In the Gospel of John, 10: 10, Jesus says, "I came so that people can have life and have it abundantly." And the most abundant life, the most happy and free way we can live is to live under the control of Christ through the development of our own self- discipline.

God is saying to each of us today: "O.K., you've messed up and some things are not working like they should. You've let some things get out of control. It doesn't matter now. Just turn back to me and let's begin again." Let's begin again. Amen.

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