Discipline: The Path to Potential
Discipline: The Path to Potential
2 Timothy 2:3-7
A message by Rev Dr Stanley Lim on 5 July 2009
Introduction: The Oxford dictionary defines discipline as this: “Training that produces obedience, self-control or a particular skill; a controlled behavior produced by training.”
Here are a few quotations on the subject of discipline by some famous people:
Julie Andrews – Some people regards discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.
Jean Paul Getty – The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him – and hasten adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.
Plato (Greek philosopher and disciple of Socrates) – The first & best victory is to conquer self.
Roy L. Smith – Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.
Mickey Mantle was the most naturally gifted baseball player of all time. He was clocked rounding the bases in an incredible 13 seconds. Yet his speed was nothing compared to the power of his hitting. The Guinness Book of World Records credits him with hitting the longest home run ever measured, at 643 feet. At age 19 he had been called up to play for the New York Yankees. He won a World Series his rookie year, and his teams would capture seven championships over the course of his career. By the time he retired, Mickey had played more games as a Yankee than any other player and had been named MVP of the American League 3 times. He holds the all-time World Series records for home runs, runs scored and runs batted in.
Yet in spite of his impressive accomplishments experts believe Mickey Mantle never reached his potential. Most blamed Mantle’s chronic knee injuries for preventing him from doing more. But injuries weren’t the root of the problem. What most people didn’t know was that Mickey was a raging alcoholic.
At age 62, with his health & family life a mess, Mantle checked into the Betty Ford clinic & started a long road to sobriety. Looking back from this vantage point, he assessed his career:- “I never fulfilled what my dad had wanted [to be the greatest player who ever lived] and I should have. God gave me a great body to play with and I didn’t take care of it. And I blame a lot of it on alcohol. Everybody tries to make the excuse that injuries shortened my career. Truth is, after I’d had a knee operation the doctors would give me rehab work to do, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d be out drinking…I hurt my knees through the years, and I just thought they’d naturally come back. Everything has always come naturally to me. I didn’t work hard at all.”
Despite his great natural talent, Mickey Mantle never disciplines himself off the field. By the time Mantle was ready to change, it was too late. His liver was ruined from a life of alcoholism, and he died at the age of 74 from inoperable cancer.
As a child of God, to become the person you have the potential to be, you have to cultivate a life of discipline. Consider the truths found in 2 Timothy 2:3-7.
I. Discipline comes with a price tag
Vs. 3 – You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (Message Bible: When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did!)
Vs. 4 – No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. (Message Bible: A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders)
Vs. 5 – An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere.