I Made My Body A Project

It was never laziness. Nobody in your life has ever accused you of that.

For four years you were extremely disciplined about this and it worked and you have the results, and I am not going to be dismissive about them because they were earned.

And in those four years your household arranged itself around the schedule.

Meals moved. Saturday mornings went. Two family things were declined because of where they fell, and nobody complained about any of it, and your wife handled the rearranging so smoothly that it looked like it cost nothing.

You know it cost something. That is why you are reading this.

And here is the difficulty you are actually in, which is more awkward than the usual one.

You cannot go back to nothing. That would be a genuine loss and it would be foolish and you know it. The discipline is a good thing about you and it has served you elsewhere.

But you also cannot go on, because at some point in the last year the thing stopped being something you do and became something the household serves.

There is a word for a thing that a family arranges itself around and makes sacrifices to, and I am not going to use it lightly and I am also not going to pretend it is not the right word.

I keep under my body

There is a line at the end of First Corinthians nine where Paul describes his own physical discipline, and the ordering in it is everything.

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Corinthians 9:27, King James Version)

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

He keeps his body under. Under what, is the question, and the answer is in the second half of the verse.

You have a verse that puts a man's physical discipline underneath something else entirely, and 1 Corinthians 9:27 has never once left it standing on its own. The body is brought into subjection for the sake of the preaching, and the Holy Spirit is the one who keeps a good thing in the position it belongs in.

You are able to see that Paul is not the man in your situation and is also not the opposite of him. He is disciplined about his body. Explicitly, deliberately, and he says so.

And the whole sentence is subordinated. The discipline exists so that the ministry is not undermined. It is a servant of something, and the something is named in the same breath, and the discipline does not get a sentence of its own anywhere in the letter.

That is the difference, and it is not a difference of amount. It is a difference of position.

You are able to keep every bit of the discipline and change what it is under, and 1 Corinthians 9:27 has never once required a man to become less rigorous. The Spirit of God is the one who reorders what a life is arranged around, and the verse subordinates the body in the same sentence that commands the keeping of it.

The test is what it costs somebody else

Here is the practical test, and it is not about hours.

A discipline is in its place when nobody else is paying for it.

You have a household that has been paying an invoice it never discussed, and 1 Corinthians 9:27 has never once put the cost of a man's discipline on the people around him. It is written that he keeps his body under and brings it into subjection, and the Holy Spirit is the one who shows a man where the bill has actually been landing.

Count the things that moved. Not the hours you spent, which is the wrong measure and the one you have been using.

Count what your wife rearranged. Count the Saturday mornings your son did not have you in. Count the two things you declined.

Every one of those is a payment made by somebody who did not choose the project, toward a result they do not have any share in.

That is not the same as being a bad husband, and I am not saying it is. It is a thing that happens slowly to disciplined men, and the discipline is exactly why it goes unchallenged: nobody argues with a man who is doing something admirable.

And here is what tells you it has moved out of place. If it moves to a time that costs nothing, something in you objects. That objection is the whole answer.

You are able to move it to an hour nobody is paying for, and doing that has never once been the same as taking it less seriously. The Spirit of God is the one who reorders a household, and 1 Corinthians 9:27 keeps the body under something larger than itself.

Ten minutes that costs nobody anything

So here is the assignment, and it is small on purpose because the point is not the amount.

Do the ten minutes at a time that costs the household nothing, with one of them in it, and let that be the whole of it today.

You are able to do a small version at an hour nobody had to give up, and doing it that way has never once made it worth less. It is written that he brings his body into subjection, and the Holy Spirit is the one who is present with a man walking a track at an hour that nobody rearranged for him.

Find the hour that costs nothing. Every week has one and you know where yours is.

And take one of them with you, which is the second half and the more important one, because it converts the whole thing from a withdrawal into an inclusion.

Your son has spent four years watching you leave for this. Ten minutes of him being in it is a different education from four years of him waving you off.

Today, only that. Not the full thing plus ten minutes with your son, which is the compromise your mind is currently constructing, and which would leave the position of the thing exactly where it is.

You have permission to do the small version today and let it be the whole of it, and one day of that has never once undone four years of anything. First Corinthians 9:27 puts the discipline under the ministry in the same sentence, and the Spirit of God is the one who moves a thing back into its right position without destroying it.