DISCIPLINE, PURPOSE OF
A young child accidentally took sleeping pills from the family’s medicine cabinet. The doctor instructed the parents to keep the child awake by any means necessary for the next four hours—including the pain of slapping if necessary. That pain was necessary for the child’s survival. So, too, in the Christian’s journey: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11, niv).347
A boy’s toy boat went out of reach on a pond one day and started floating away. A man on the side started throwing rocks at the boat and the boy became horrified at what might happen. But then he realized that the rocks were going over the boat and making ripples that finally pushed the boat back to shore and into the boy’s hands.
Many times, when we stray away from God, it appears that he is throwing rocks at us. But he is really using the ripples to bring us back home.348
A woman visiting in Switzerland came to a sheepfold on one of her daily walks. Venturing in, she saw the shepherd seated on the ground with his flock around him. Nearby, on a pile of straw lay a single sheep, which seemed to be suffering. Looking closely, the woman saw that its leg was broken.
Her sympathy went out to the suffering sheep, and she looked up inquiringly to the shepherd as she asked how it happened. “I broke it myself,” said the shepherd sadly and then explained. “Of all the sheep in my flock, this was the most wayward. It would not obey my voice and would not follow when I was leading the flock. On more than one occasion, it wandered to the edge of a perilous cliff. And not only was it disobedient itself, but it was leading other sheep astray.
“Based on my experience with this kind of sheep, I knew I had no choice, so I broke its leg. The next day I took food and it tried to bite me. After letting it lie alone for a couple of days, I went back and it not only eagerly took the food, but licked my hand and showed every sign of submission and affection.
“And now, let me say this. When this sheep is well, it will be the model sheep of my entire flock. No sheep will hear my voice so quickly nor follow so closely. Instead of leading the others away, it will be an example of devotion and obedience. In short, a complete change will come into the life of this wayward sheep. It will have learned obedience through its sufferings.”
Many times it is the same in human experience. Through our suffering, God may be seeking to teach us obedience and reliance on his care.349
The two-year-old, normally a quite obedient little boy, was having an attack of stubbornness—a disease endemic to the species. Still, it was surprising to see such a severe case in one of such tender years. His mother had asked the lad to do something, but he was much too absorbed in his own activities to take time out for that. The father watched as the mother went over to impress on the little boy the importance of minding his parents promptly—to which he responded with a right hook to the jaw of his surprised mother! The father, realizing that his son’s behavior was completely unacceptable and would become dangerous not only to the mother but to the child as well if it were allowed to continue, intervened at this point by giving the wouldbe boxer the worst spanking of his young life, after which he was sent to his room.
Ten minutes later, the child was back, tears still streaming down his cherub face, and crawled sobbing into the father’s lap as he put his chubby little arms around his neck. What followed is one of the warmest and tenderest memories in this father’s heart. What the child said was not “I’m sorry, Dad,” or “I won’t do it again,” but—with a wisdom and perception far beyond his years—“I love you, Dad!”350
Discipline is not God’s way of saying, “I’m through with you,” or a mark of abandonment by him. Rather, it is the loving act of God to bring you back. C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures; he speaks to us in our work; he shouts at us in our pain.”
Every one of us knows that there have been times when we would not listen to God or pay any attention to what his Word was saying, until finally he used a severe discipline to get our attention so that we would listen.351
Loose wires give out no musical notes, but when their ends are fastened, the piano, the harp, or the violin is born. Free steam drives no machine, but harnessed and confined with piston and turbine, it makes possible the great world of machinery. An unhampered river drives no dynamos, but dam it up and you can generate sufficient power to light a great city. So our lives must be disciplined if we are to be of any real service in the world.352