I don’t know when I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand,
(well, I "read" it by listening to it on audio, as you could probably guess), but
it was before the movie came out. Batterson writes about the will power in
Chapter 3, but Hillenbrand writes about what could be the personification of
will power in Louis Zamperini.
After 9/11 happened, I called the army recruitment office to
see if I would be too old to become an Army Chaplain. I don’t know what would
have happened otherwise, but they told me that indeed I was.
I look back on
that, and think about the last ten years now in serving in a church next door
to the free world’s largest military base. I never served in the armed forces
but was always proud to say my father was a sergeant in the Air Force and felt
a degree of pride during the God and country days when I would see the military
men and women stand in honor of their past service.
Looking back on my life, and perhaps because of serving here
in Killeen, I do regret not serving in the military. I do not think I would
have served more than the minimal two years, but I will never know how my life
would have been different. There were no major conflicts in the world in the
early 1980s, but I know it would have helped my will power and self-discipline.
I hope you men exercise self-discipline and have good and
strong will power. It doesn’t have to be limited to gym or committing to marathon
or in my case trying to run the entire distance of a 5-K run (I could barely do
that before my plantar fascitus).
The Apostle Paul admits that bodily
discipline does profit “a little”, but do you want to know where you can get
the best gain for your “pain” of self-discipline? It’s in the spiritual, non-physical
realm. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “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.”
I never joined the army. I never really played sports beyond
junior high. I quit band and the discipline that musicians go through to
acquire true talent. But I hope that my spiritual disciplines which God has led
me through will have eternal consequences. And I hope my prayers for you, my
sons, will have generational results on your children and grandchildren.
Who
knows how long the internet will last and how many future generations of
McKeown men and women will read this blog? Do know that I pray for you, my sons
and daughters and future descendants.
And remember that disciples have disciplines in the
spiritual realm. The path of least resistance always leads to a downhill slide.
The path to new heights is always an uphill struggle.
I confess at my age (57
will seem young when I read this again, but man, it seems old right now), I
have not arrived, but like Paul, “I press on to make it my own, because
Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 (Sons), I do not consider that
I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and
straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
In other words, Men, PLAY THE MAN!
