✨Why Obedience

The Power in Unlocking Personal Discipline

Dear Why Team member,

I hope this week’s message finds you well and obedient to your highest aspirations.

Recently, I’ve come to appreciate the value and importance of obedience.  Clearly the temptation for most of us is to be disobedient - a childhood preoccupation :-) Yet, isn’t maturity partially defined as becoming an effective parent to oneself?  A parents’ role is to set a good example, provide good counsel and to correct where correction is needed.  But the time comes when the child must parent oneself, provide good counsel to oneself, establish rules and disciplines and be obedient to their values.

The pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

Where you find discipline, you find success, the greater the discipline, the greater the success.

Much is said about discipline, but not so much about obedience.  Why? For the child, being obedient is certainly restricting, it keeps them from the carefree life of playing in the street - but the wise parents are aware of traffic and set the boundaries that help keep their children from being run over.  A truly loving parent is aware of the dangers, seeks and provides good counsel while hopefully modeling their own self-obedience.

I’ve known those hesitant to commit to improvements in their life.  Once the objective is set, they must be obedient to their objective.  Setting New Year’s resolutions has fallen off a cliff.  There are many reasons why, not least of which is that nearly 85% of resolutions are broken by the end of February.  I often hear audience members say resolutions don’t work, well, how about we ask ‘why’?

It’s not enough to just set a resolution, we must then be obedient to the ‘work’.
A gym membership means little if we don’t show up.

80% of Success is showing up
Woody Allen

But it takes more than discipline, it requires being obedient to the commitment.  Isn’t it interesting how we are more likely to follow through on a commitment we make to another person than to the commitments we make to ourselves?!  With this awareness, and the humility to accept its truthfulness, we can hack through our limits by committing more to others that which we wish to accomplish. Such as committing to a personal trainer the times you will ‘show up’ every week.

A good friend of mine, self-aware enough of his disobedience, says he literally puts himself in situations that require him to move.  He shared with me that he ‘shows up’ regularly to train at Jiu-Jitsu and jokingly says,  you must try to kill me before I’ll move to train :-)

The Greeks said “know thyself.”

Maybe the ones most qualified to give advice seek and receive advice. Maybe the best leader is the one who has followed.

We cannot see the picture when we’re in the frame.  It is paramount to seek good counsel and to be open enough to receive it.
Is our soil open for new seeds of insight?  Are we fertile ground or have our gardens become hard packed?
What’s the condition of our garden?
Do we obediently tend to our garden, toiling the soil, planting the seeds of insight, and pulling the weeds?

You will know them by their fruits.
Mathew 7:16

This week, consider more the importance of obedience in your life.  Our self-worth is the sum total of our values. Commit to being more obedient to your highest aspirations; commit more to others to move you more to action, to doing the good work you are called to do - that will ultimately be in service to others - sticking more to your disciplines - which by doing alone is an act of obedience.

Celebrate the self-control, the self-discipline, and the obedience to your higher values with each and every productive step - receiving not the criticism of the naysayers.
Be not dissuaded!

Enjoy your life all the more, living in faith, knowing that your daily disciplines, and obedient sacrifices, will be rewarded.  In fact, there is an immediate reward from the doing of them.

Have faith in the obedient, disciplined work, for yourself and others.
Enjoy tending to your garden even more - celebrating the fruit of the spirit that comes from doing the work itself - knowing that what you’re planting now, will in time bear even more fruit.

Make it a great week!

Steve Luckenbach