Discipline

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: ‘discipline’ as in… the hard work of doing it, as in the daily-ness of it all.

Gratitude isn’t a feeling. Gratitude is a choice that we can make every day. But making gratitude a daily choice doesn’t just happen; it takes discipline. The more we weave gratitude into our daily rhythms the more gratefulness will weave its way into us.

There’s an ancient story in Luke’s gospel about Jesus healing ten men with leprosy. As the story is told, though ten were healed, only one returned to give thanks. This is an richly complicated and layered story. For now, though, let’s just consider the one who returned. Why did he return? What caused him to come back? Of all the things that could have driven him back to Jesus, discipline was probably the greatest force.

Somewhere in that guy’s wiring—before it had become corroded from that dreaded disease, there was the constant practice, the on-going hard work, the daily-ness. The discipline of stopping, turning, then returning to express gratitude had been woven into his life. He’d done it before. He’d done it many times before. He was disciplined in the art of gratitude. That doesn’t just happen.

The other nine?

Maybe after having been separated from their loved ones for God knows how long, maybe, just maybe they all ran home to their families and friends to tell them about the rabbi who healed them. Maybe it was out of sheer joy and wonder that they couldn’t help themselves that day but then found Jesus the next morning. I’m not ready to throw the lepers out with that grungy bath water.

But this one thing is certain: The one guy did come back and express his gratitude.

Thanks be to God for that because here we are still talking about that one thing that that one guy on that one afternoon…thousands of years later.

That takes some discipline.

#100days50words

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50words project, where be blogs about a different word each day. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche), or on his blog, Thriving Rhythms.