Eyes on the Prize
By Grant Gaines
You know what doesn’t sound like fun? Getting to the gym at 5am and not leaving until 7pm. Playing a teammate in basketball 1-on-1 to 100 after practice. Icing your knees for 20 minutes a day, 3 times a day. Working out for four hours every day during the season. Not leaving the gym until you make 400 shots…after practice. And cutting out all sugar and junk food from your diet.
None of those sound like fun to me. But can I tell you what does sound like a lot of fun? Winning five NBA championships, winning an NBA Most Valuable Player award, and being the third all-time leading scorer in NBA history.
All of those achievements above have been accomplished by Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Kobe Bryant. In his prime Kobe was widely regarded as the best player in the NBA and a basketball hero that every young aspiring basketball player wanted to be like. But not one single one of those accolades could have been realized by Bryant if it weren’t for one key ingredient: an insane amount of discipline.
Discipline is doing anything today that your future self will say “thank you.” And that does not apply only to sports, but rather to every area of our life.
Throughout the Bible we see many examples of disciplined men and women of the faith. But nowhere is it more evident than in the life of Christ. And while we could look at a lot of different stories illustrating Jesus’ discipline, today I want to focus on one short passage beginning in Mark 1:35:
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’ Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else–to the nearby villages–so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons” (Mark 1:35-39, NIV).
It should come to no surprise to you that Jesus was a very disciplined Man. This passage in particular highlights His extreme dedication to the practice of prayer before kicking off His day. And I doubt that too many of you reading this would argue that spending time with the LORD is one of, if not, most important things we could do every day. So today rather than debating if time in prayer is important, I want to explore the question, “How was Jesus able to follow through with this discipline day in and day out?”
Fortunately we don’t have to speculate too long and I don’t even have to give my own opinion on the matter because the very passage that we just read gave us the exact answer that we are looking for. At the end of Mark 1:38 (NIV, bold mine), Jesus gives us His secret for living a disciplined life when He says, “…Let us go somewhere else-to the nearby villages-so I can preach there also, that is why I have come.”
The key to Christ’s discipline was that He knew His goal and constantly kept it on His mind-to preach the Gospel to others. From the very beginning of His ministry in Mark 1:38 to the very end of His time on earth in Luke 18:10 (NIV), Jesus stayed focused on His one objective-“…to seek and save the lost.” This goal allowed Christ to persevere through every groggy morning, long evening, and even a brutal death on an old Roman cross because He kept His eyes focused on His mission.
That’s what goals have the power to do-they allow us to press on when the thrill of the moment has worn off. Take New Year’s Resolutions for example. Everyone makes them, and according to studies, very few people follow through with them. In fact, while 64% of people still hold onto their resolutions after one month, only 8% of people actually accomplish their resolution come the following December 31st. The failure in accomplishing those resolutions is because we so often fail to keep our focus on what we originally set out to do. So rather than running a straight course towards our objectives like Christ did, we end up chasing our tails in an endless circle and wind up back at square one having accomplished nowhere near what our potential tells us we should have.
So if you desire to be disciplined in any area of your life, you must constantly remind yourself of what you originally set out to do. That’s how Jesus accomplished His mission for three long years on earth. And I don’t know about you, but that’s a Man I don’t mind following!
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
