Why Self-Control Is So Important! (Replay)

Why Self-Control Is So Important! 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we, an imperishable one. Thus, I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”Yesterday I was talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I mentioned the book set my mom bought me. I grabbed one of the books to get the list of gifts from it, and later, I noticed I happened to grab the Self-Control book.  I don’t think that was an accident, as that is the one I probably see the least in my life.  I opened it up and started reading it and found this really amazing story of self-control in it.  I would like to relay that story to you before I talk about the verse above, although they are all connected. The author Robert Strand wrote the devotion series on the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit. I found this story in the Self-Control book.  However, it is originally from Rober Schuller’s book Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking. It is about a polio victim who required an iron lung to breathe and learned how to breathe without it, even though every muscle below his Adam's apple is paralyzed. Karl Dewayne Sudekum, through discipline, has learned how to breathe like a frog. Here's the story. In 1953, while Carl was a lieutenant in the US Navy, he contracted polio. For six years, he could breathe only in an iron lung or on a tilt bed. Then he got mad — really angry. He decided he would breathe. He stopped the rocking motion of his bed and remembered how he used to breathe like a frog as a young boy in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a trick almost all kids knew. He would take air with his tongue and force it down his windpipe. When he exhaled, his lungs let out the air like a deflating balloon. He's been breathing this way ever since. "Science doesn't really know how it's done,” he said. "It's a two-cycle pumping action that some people can do and some people can't. Some people can whistle through their teeth, but I never could. It's like that." He could stay away from the iron lung as long as he remained awake. With his first real independence, Sudeckum decided to become an attorney. In 1959 he entered the University of San Diego. His wife, Emerald, drove him to school and wheeled him into class. He couldn't take notes, and a tape recorder was too awkward. He simply listened and remembered. Then he was told he had diabetes. That under control, the doctors discovered an ulcer. For a year, he lived with a mysterious high fever, a reaction to medication. Still, he got his diploma and passed the bar exam.He is practicing now and signs documents, K. D. Sudeckum. It is too much of a task to write his full name with a pen in his teeth. When he talks too long in court, his face gets very red, but it's nothing to worry about. A cold is something else. It could be fatal. So what does he do? "I don't get colds." If he falls asleep or faints while out on his own, frog breathing, he will die unless someone who knows his condition administers artificial respiration. What does he do about that? "I try to think about it as little as possible.”Wow, there are no words to describe this man’s self-control. It makes my day seem not so bad anymore.  My challenges with self-control seem so small compared to his. Yet, I still have them, and they are challenging for me.  I am sure your challenges with self-control are hard for you as well.  We need not compare ourselves to each other.  That is not why I told you this story.  I told you this story so you could see what is possible for our self-control.  If he can do it, we can do it.  We just have to figure out what our motivation is.  His started out as anger.  I am not sure if that remained the whole time or if it switched. It doesn’t matter too much. However, it is clear that something was motivating him.  This is where I think this verse can be helpful. It can be our motivation if we let it.  I remember the first time this verse had a profound impact on me. Father Mike was talking about it on the Bible in a year podcast, and He was talking about the self-discipline the athletes must have to win an Olympic medal, or for that matter, even to be able to compete in the Olympics. It is an unbelievably hard training schedule. They have to exercise, practice, and watch what they eat and what they drink.  It is a lot, and yet they do it because they love it, hopefully, and also because they want to win the medal. The medal that they win is a big deal.  It is something to be honored and something that not many people can say they have done. The odds of winning a gold medal at the Olympics is 1 in 662,000. Yet they train, and they work hard for it.  The race that we are all running, whether we know it or not, is the one for our salvation. The stakes are so much higher, and yet our efforts are so much lower.  This is not the exact wording of how Father Mike said it, but whatever he did say left me with that thought in my head. I remember thinking about this for days afterward. I wonder if we realize what is at stake. Why aren’t we trying to do all we can so that when we get to heaven, God will not say to us, as he said to those in Matthew 7:21-23? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.”Wow, that is definitely something that I never want to hear. However, am I making time to sit with Jesus every day to talk? Do I have the self-control and the self-discipline to pass up sleeping in on a Sunday morning so I can go to church?  Do I have the self-control to put first things first? Why is it I can muster the self-control to work out regularly at times, and yet the self-discipline to say the rosary daily or write in my prayer journal daily escapes me? I think I need to put this verse up somewhere that I will see it daily. When I read it, my heart is convicted to do something, and yet I quickly get distracted and forget about it.  How about you?  Are you doing all you can do to foster your relationship with God, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit? Are you using self-control to help you put first things first?  This is definitely something I will need to take to my prayer time, and I hope you will join me in this.  I hope you will ask the Lord to show you the various ways you are struggling with self-control and then ask Him what you should do about it. He will help you out if you ask Him. I want to train as hard as an athlete does to develop my relationship with my one true King.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, please help us to develop our self-control.  Help us to put first things first and help us to grow closer to you.  We never want to hear the words, “I never knew you.” Lord, we want to know you. We want to be close to you, please help us. We thank you, Lord, for all the ways you are already helping us and all the time you have spent with us.  We are sorry we don’t always put you first and that so often, other things get in the way. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. CLICK HERE for retreat info.   I hope you will join me for an amazing weekend.  It will be a time to get filled up and refreshed. If you have any questions, please reach out.  I look forward to meeting you here tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace