On Discipline - Part 1

I’ve been trying to get my head around establishing some new personal disciplines. I feel like I’ve lost much of my spiritual focus and closeness to God in this season. I also turned 50 a year and a bit ago, so I’m trying to at least maintain some semblance of physical fitness. These are just two examples in my life of things that require some discipline.

Elton Trueblood was a 20th-century American Quaker, author and theologian. He wrote; “Without the discipline of time, we spoil the next day the night before and without the discipline of prayer, we are likely to end by having practically no experience of the divine-human encounter. Excellence comes at a price and one of the major prices is that of inner control. We have not advanced very far in our spiritual lives if we have not encountered the basic paradox of freedom, to the effect that we are most free when we are bound. The athlete cannot excel without regular exercise and restraint. Failure to train rigorously and to live abstemiously denies the athlete the freedom to go over the bar at the desired height or to run with the desired speed and endurance. With one concerted voice, the giants of the devotional life apply the same principle to the whole of life with the dictum:  Discipline is the price of freedom.

We are most free when we are bound. Interesting. Would you agree?