Monday, August 3, 2009

Encouraging - Discipline

This weekend I have enjoyed watching the World Swimming Championships. Sure, all forty-three of the new world records are grossly inflated because of the textile suits, but I am always amazed at their precision, technique and discipline. How many times did Michael Phelps practice his turns to maximize his precision? How many times have the backstrokers adjusted their starts to maximize their lifts off of the wall? How many times have these permier athletes had to delay instant gratification for miniscule hope of gold? I just finished reading Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, by Jim Collins. This book has been out for a few years and looks primarily at why some companies are successful while others are not. In his book, he offers the "rinising your cottage cheese" analogy as a way to measure one's discipline. Dave Scott, a six time Hawaii Ironman Triathlon winner, "would ride his bike 75 miles, swim 20,000 meteres, and run 17 miles - on average every single day. Dave Scott did not have a weight problem! yet he believed that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet would give him an extra edge. So Dave Scott - a man who burned at least 5,000 calories a day in training -would literally rinse his cottage cheese to get the extra fat off" (127). World class athletes exemplify super discipline in order to reach their stated goals. There is no task or no detail too small to overlook. As Christians, we should be no different in our pursuit to be Christ-like; "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize" (1 Corinthians 9:27). We are all human with feet of clay, but that does not serve as an excuse to give up the good fight; "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance" (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

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