The Discipline of the Lord

THE DISCPLINE OF THE LORD

If you are like me, and I assume that you are, from time to time something barges into our lives that totally upsets the apple cart.  If it were only just an apple cart!   It is most likely a loss, to yourself or to a loved one; the loss of a job (been there, done that!), an accident, illness or serious disease, an injury to, or loss of, a relationship.   Whatever it is and whenever it happens, and if you are trying to walk with the Lord, the big QUESTION comes blaring into mind. Why, Lord, why? Why me?  What have I done to deserve this?  Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me, healing me, blessing me?

As I have begun to learn, this is a simple question with a complex answer so I can only suggest that there are good reasons that God is apparently not answering your prayers, at least in the timing and in the manner in which you would like them answered. 

Perhaps the most important reason may be because “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” says the Lord.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV.

To this we add.  “You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.  And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong – you want only what will give you pleasure.”  James 4:2, 3 NLT.

And then there is Hebrews 12:5-7 AMP  “My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; for the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.  You must submit to and endure correction for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not train and correct and discipline? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him.”

So back to the basic question:  Why has this happened and why, when I pray, aren’t You answering? 

Has God actually allowed this loss that has so dramatically disrupted our life, to get our attention?  Is He intervening in order to bring “correction and discipline” into our life because we have become too dull to realize what we need?

Other things to consider: Perhaps our prayer life has centered upon asking only for those things that make us happy or satisfy our desires and goals.  Or perhaps God, with His long view of our life, sees what we can’t.  For instance, the verse in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome tells us that “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”  Romans 8:28 NLT.  Do we have faith to believe this?  Are we able to trust so that we can wait patiently for this to occur?

One other thought comes from the wisdom of St. Augustine, as quoted by Bishop Robert Barron – “Sometimes God delays in giving us what we want because He wants our hearts to expand.”  Which means?  When the Lord is slow to answer our prayers, we must keep on asking, keep on expecting and never give up.

One last quote, this time from Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. “Life is not so much a problem to be solved as a mystery to be lived.”  Rather than attempting to “solve the problem”, we need to see that by traveling through the problem we enter into the very mystery that God wants us to live.

So where is this leading?  Over the years, my wife and I – we have been married 65 years – have prayed for the Lord to guide and direct us, asking for His help to follow Him wherever His is guiding us.   But the question we have never asked ourselves is this. “Even if it turns out to be on a road, or to a place, that we would rather not go?”  This question has remained unasked and unanswered until more recently when it suddenly became obvious to us that for the past few years.  We have been traveling on a road that, given the chance, we would never have chosen!               What I share now I have only shared with close family.   Over these past couple of years, my wife, who was diagnosed with MS at age 53, has experienced a new impact of her MS, a disease that has afflicted her to one degree or another since she was diagnosed.  (A slight digression here is that there are two forms of MS.  She is fortunate, comparatively speaking, in that she has relapsing/remitting MS.  When compared with primary progressive MS, this relapsing/remitting MS is the lesser of two evils, the only appropriate way to describe either form of MS. 

Through all these years, she responded remarkably well to a drug therapy that enabled her to “gain back her life”.  Unfortunately, the “relapsing” aspect of her MS has once again raised its ugly head in that she is suffering significant loss of short-term memory along with some diminishing of cognitive capabilities.  Her neurologist, after taking blood tests and analyzing the results of a new MRI, assures us that this condition is caused by MS and not by Alzheimer's disease.  Based upon her family history, this was a relief to hear.    

One of her new symptoms is the onset of aphasia, usually associated with brain damage.  She has great trouble in recalling words, names, places that were so readily and easily accessible to her just short months ago.  This makes it extremely difficult for her to carry on a conversation, in person or on the phone, or to describe a memory or give important information and instructions.  It is a condition that causes her much anxiety, stress, frustration and anger.   This is why I describe the “road” upon which we are currently traveling as to a journey that we didn’t want to take nor would have ever chosen.  And, at least so far, persistent and earnest prayer has not availed as we have hoped for. So how do we respond? What’s next?  How do we answer the question:  Why, Lord?

 It certainly wasn’t a coincidence, then, that I recently listened to two separate messages, each from excellent and faithful teachers (Bishop Robert Barron and Dr. Brant Pitre), each addressing the somewhat cryptic message in Hebrews 12:5-7.  The part that struck a gong in my consciousness was this:  “My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; for the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.  You must submit to and endure correction for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons.”

Have we, then, found ourselves needing to be disciplined and corrected by the Lord? 

Both teachers mentioned above, separately and independently, brought into focus what they believed “correction” and “discipline” to essentially mean.  I can condense and paraphrase their message into these two paragraphs. 

“Correction” means bringing to a stop those things in our life that are truly unnecessary, unwanted, unattractive and undesirable, things that ought not to be in our life.  These are the things that we need to REMOVE  If we are honest, they are most likely not all that hidden to us. 

“Discipline” means learning, learning to recognize and remove and fill the void with that which God wants us add to our lives.  Learning is what a disciple does.  Discipline is what every loving, protective parent does, every parent who wishes to teach their children with love and to carry out correction without humiliation.  So why should we be surprised to learn that our Abba, Father, wishes to correct and discipline His children?  Why shouldn’t He want us to respond to Him in the same way that we wish our children to respond to us?

 But this isn’t easy – for our children or for us.  We need God to point out our “blind spots”, those areas in our lives that are we in need of “correction”.  We need to see where, what and how.   We need to see, understand and learn. 

So we ask the Holy Spirit of the Sovereign Lord to show us, teach us, help us.  Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear.  And we ask and keep on asking.  We seek and keep on seeking.  We knock and keep on knocking.  And then we wait with enduring faith, patience and expectation for God to correct us, teach us.  With His love, grace and mercy, He will help us to “get over ourselves”, to surrender pride or stubbornness or dishonesty, to acquire all that God wants us to have so that we can travel whatever road we are on in complete peace, complete trust and complete rest.  Nothing makes traveling on this road easy, wherever it leads, so we will cling to God’s promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us.  His promise is that we are not alone on this road because He walks beside us and will never leave us nor forsake us. And His promise is “My grace is sufficient for you – at all times in all circumstances.”