Discipline For A Greater Good

Hey y'all! It's been awhile! Because it's been awhile, I'm warning you. THIS IS A LONG POST. But super excited to be back! 

I know you all had to have noticed the big D word in the title. DISCIPLINE. Almost instantly the first word in the title of this post makes some people cringe, like it did to me when I first heard it. DISCIPLINE??? But I thought I was doing okay. I mean I've not been a troublemaker or anything. We automatically associate discipline with punishment. Probably because that's the way the world perceives it. But we all know the "world's ways" are always completely different than God's ways. God associates discipline with love. BECAUSE He loves us...He disciplines. He wants us to be like Him. Perfected for the day of Christ's return. His spotless bride. However, we all still cringe when we hear the word because of how uncomfortable it is. And it hurts. 

I've been at my job for the past 2 years. At first, it was so great! I just kept thinking how awesome it was and how blessed I was by God for having it, because I never went to college and I had always wanted an office job. However, over the course of a year...things have changed for the worse. More challening than your typical office drama. I mean, it's been pretty serious. I won't take time to go into the details today because it's not worth it right now. 

But to say it's been very challenging is an understatement. I've pondered, questioned, prayed, pleaded, and complained and then get aggravated because I didn't hear The Lord say anything about it. I couldn't take it anymore. I finally confided in a couple of godly women I knew I could trust to help me. And then I heard it...lesson. God was teaching me a lesson. God was disciplining me. The first word in the dictionary is to train. God uses specific periods or places of our lives where He desires to train us to become more like Him. It isn't fun, and it isn't pretty. It is painful. But It certainly takes our eyes off of ourselves and places it back on Him. We automatically assume that because God loves us that we are free from the beatings of life. Wrong. When we gave our hearts over to God, we said He could use us however He wishes. It gets a little more real when He actually tests us on it lol. Discipline is for us, but it's more about Him and the good of the kingdom. 

I read an article today about discipline and in the article it contained a story. This fits perfectly for our lives, and it blesses my socks off! Read it and I hope it blesses you too and gives you more revelation about the purposes God has for our lives. So if you find yourself in a challening season, God may be disciplining you. Not because you've been bad. But because He's got something better He is leading you to, and wants to use you in a greater way than He's ever used you before. But we've got to be trained good enough for it. Be blessed everyone! The truth shall set you free!

Once upon a time, far off in the heart of the Western Kingdom, the master came to walk day by day. In the midst of the garden there in the Western Kingdom was the most beautiful bamboo tree that ever grew in all the earth. The master would come by and look at his plants; but he had a special affinity for that old bamboo tree. He watched it as it grew. He nurtured it almost to complete maturity.

One day, as the great master was walking through his garden, he came to that bamboo tree, and on impulse that bamboo tree bowed down in loving adoration of his master. The master said, “Bamboo, most beautiful of all the trees in my garden, I think that you're just about ready to become useful to me.”

Bamboo said, “Oh, great master, if I can do anything for you, I will. Just take me. Use me.”

The great master said, “Bamboo, Bamboo, most beautiful of all the trees in my garden, if I'm going to use you I have to cut you down.” The wind stopped blowing, and the birds stopped singing and all the butterflies were still.

Then Bamboo said, “Well, master, I'm yours. But, you yourself said that I'm the most beautiful of all the trees in the garden, must you cut me down?”

“I must, if you're going to be useful to me.” The sounds of the garden were hushed in silence as that great bamboo bent his neck, and the master cut him down.

Then the master said, “Bamboo, you’re still not useful to me. If you're going to be useful to me, I must cut off all your branches.”

Bamboo pleaded, “Oh, master, not that. You've already cut me down. Isn't that enough? Please don't cut off my branches.”

But, the great master said, “No, I must cut off your branches.” Once more the garden was silenced, and all the plants looked on with rapt attention as the great master snipped off branch after branch, and bared that great bamboo.

Then the master said, “Bamboo, you're not useful to me yet. There's one more thing. If you're going to be useful to me, then I must split you open and cut your heart out.”

Bamboo wept, “Oh, master, not that! “You've already taken away my beauty. There's nothing left now—just me. Must you scrape my heart out?”

“I must if you're to be useful to me.'” Once more the garden was hushed as the great master took that bamboo, split him down the middle and scraped his heart out.

Then the great master took that bamboo shoot, now hollowed out and scraped clean, and walked over to a spring that was bubbling with water. He laid one end of that hollowed-out bamboo shoot in the stream. He placed the other end of that bamboo shoot in the irrigation ditch that watered his garden. Then the waters began to flow; and the fields began to grow. The wind began to blow again. The birds began to sing. The rice was planted and the harvest came. And. that bamboo who, standing all alone in the garden was the most beautiful of all the master's plants, that bamboo, which meant so much to himself, when he was stripped bare, and hollowed out, was then, and only then useful in the great master's garden.