Today in the car I was listening to pretty much the only thing I listen to in my car and that is 1460 The Fan, sports talk radio. Anyway Bruce Hooley, one of the hosts, was talking about what sets the Red Sox apart from many of the teams in MLB. He said that it was their discipline at the plate that stood out to him. Basically, discipline at the plate refers to how often a batter swings at pitches inside and outside the strike zone (there are actually stats out there on this subject for each player...what a boring job). Anyway, the Red Sox, according to Hooley, have great discipline at the plate which means that they swing at fewer balls than strikes...are you trackin with me? Good. To explain it even further, it could be said that the Red Sox batters SEE the strike zone well and can tell if a pitch will be a strike or not before it crosses the plate.
Another example of this is the women's softball team that cleaned house in the Olympics a few years ago. I watched a TV special on them and one of their batting drills was to have balls pitched from a pitching machine at like 100mph. The trick was that each ball had a number 1-10 on each ball and each player had to call out the number on the ball before it crossed the plate. Each player could do it with almost perfect precision.
This got me thinking about the choices we make as people/parents/students/Christians/etc...
We have to decide if we are going to make wise choices or foolish ones and we have to be able to read the situation/temptation/idea/strategy/etc... that we encounter on a day to day basis. Discipline at the plate takes lots of practice and time and it induces within baseball players feelings of frustration/quitting/physical pain/joy when accomplished/even more joy when the practice plays out in a real game.
I Timothy 4:7-8 NASB
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Our discipline or Self-control as some may call is an active part of us, in and of itself, that is up to us. God helps us, gives us power and gives us wisdom, but He cannot make us be disciplined people. It is up to us to gather the knowledge, rest on our faith and act on it in all discipline.
I love to workout at the gym. In fact if I had it my way, I would be there every day at 6am and stay for a few hours. But as this verse pounds away at me every time I go to the gym, I realize that it is doing me some good (I am healthier, stronger, creating more avenues for blood to go to and from my heart, I feel better about my appearance, I burn off some of the horrible food that I eat, I meet some people, it relieves stress etc...). But, it does not profit me in other and sometimes more important areas of my life like family time, wisdom, time alone with God, serving others, compassion, sometimes losing sleep to workout (not always a good thing) etc...
That verse does say that godliness, or the pursuit of being conformed to the image of Christ as Rom 8 tells us, is valuable for all things. That is a promise I must believe and be disciplined to act upon.
I could go on and on, but just read 1st and 2nd Timothy and you will get the point.
I could have probably called this post ETC... Sorry for using that so many times.
