Article April 7, 2003 Issue

Discipline and God's guidance

By Eric Nager

As a Child, I Was Not A Risk-Taker. When opportunities came up to try something new or different, I usually declined. Then halfway through my undergraduate studies, I had a chance during the summer to attend a military training camp to compete for a scholarship that was based on participants' academic records, as well as on their performance at the camp. It was organized by the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). Although I knew that if I were successful, I might have to change schools, because my current college didn't have an ROTC program, there was really nothing to lose—and no military obligation involved in attending the camp itself. (Mounting student loans also helped me decide!)

I learned discipline at camp—but it wasn't as hard as I'd expected. My spiritual training in Sunday School had taught me that our mental state determines what we experience. Undergoing the regimentation of a form of Army basic training was not such a difficult adjustment. Sometimes there is a negative connotation about discipline—that it keeps you from doing fun things you'd rather do. But Sunday School had taught me that discipline—the activity of monitoring the quality of my thoughts—was really freeing. I learned that when I systematically learn to block distractions and hear predictably reliable direction from God, life is a joy, because doubt is removed as to what I should do.

What proved to be most important at the officers' training camp was the discipline of trusting God whole-heartedly. About halfway through the camp, I realized that I really didn't want to leave my old school despite its lack of an ROTC program. So I prayed about my situation by reasoning that if God had led me to my first school, which I believed He had, and if therefore it was the best place for me, then a way would open for me to stay there, whether it offered me the opportunities of ROTC or not. I knew that God would not lead me somewhere and then not fully provide for me.