the ultimate act of sacrifice and self-control
“Gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law” - Galatians 5:23
Recently I listened to a sermon by the late Tim Keller on self control. This was spurred on by an act that I deemed as my loss of self control. On Sunday, I left church early. I was dealing with anxiety, and I didn’t feel comfortable with my environment or with myself, so I left church in the middle of a sermon. Thinking about it, I was debating on whether it was the right thing to listen to my body or was it the wrong thing to leave church early. I had already gone to Catholic mass earlier that day, and I was mentally exhausted from the day. Against my body’s and the weather’s wishes, I tread to church, and it just didn’t feel good when I was there. And listening to myself, I decided to leave.
But this incident’s been making me think of self control and whether I had been wrong in leaving church early.
Tim Keller said that self control is the act of choosing the important thing over the urgent thing. The important thing being love for God and your neighbor while the urgent thing is yourself and giving yourself joy. The desires of the flesh keep you from self control while giving your personal self-interest for the love of God and all things Jesus is what anchors you and keeps you in control of your passions and resist temptation.
Given this premise, I should have stayed at church despite my body’s urging and resisted the flesh and committed to the sermon. The better thing would have been to stay for God, the church, and the pastor rather than giving in to tiredness and temptation. All the excuses I made for myself which included, I have work tomorrow, I can’t stay, I’m tired, I’m anxious, I can’t concentrate, the sermon’s not that good, I don’t feel good, there’s no friendly face to be found, and I just don’t want to be here. All of these excuses is moot compared to the act of staying in church for God. If I had already gone, I should have committed.
On another note, one way that I’ve been exercising self control is in reading the Bible.
I read the Bible for an hour after getting home from work. Battling exhaustion, fatigue, demons, depression, and anxiety, I made myself read the Bible aloud and listen to Jesus and the Holy Spirit every day. It’s become a positive habit and has reaped benefits for me in my spiritual life. It’s an ongoing investment to invest time and energy into my faith, but I wouldn’t have it any other way and never once did I think to myself, “Man, I wish I wasn’t Christian so I wouldn’t have to deal with this every day.” I’ve nurtured my faith and grown with Jesus in my ongoing habit of reading the Bible daily even when I’m tired.
Sometimes, you need to do the hard thing. Not give into laziness or temptation, but to persevere in accomplishing your goals. Kind of like Michael Phelps pushing his limitations and winning a record-breaking number of Olympic gold medals. Kind of like training for a half marathon (like me) and wanting to give up in the middle but in keeping your eyes on the prize, you persist and eventually win the prize.
Similarly, in1 Corinthians 9, Paul talks about running. Of all things to talk about, running gets a mention in the Bible!
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
To get the prize, we must be in possession of discipline and self control. Nothing that’s really worth it in life is easy to obtain. Being exceptional in life takes grit and endurance, perseverance and hard work, and patience and a sense of how worthy the goal really is. Keep your eyes fixed on the goal in front of you, the “prize”. It takes clarity, it takes self control, it takes resistance to the pain and a sense of the gain, and above all it takes an act of sacrifice.
Look at Jesus. Jesus sacrificed his body and his life for us, and that is the ultimate act of self control. The prize was salvation for humanity, and Jesus never took his eyes off of that end-goal. If Jesus could expose himself to such pain and misery for such an act of self-sacrifice, I can train for a half marathon. I can sit through a church sermon. I can read the Bible every day. And I can get the habits I need to achieve my goals in life. Jesus is the model for how we as Christians should behave in life, sacrificing our flesh for our goals and for our relationship with God.
I finished reading The Art of Laziness and it helped reframe productivity and lack of activity for me. There’s a thin line between wanting rest and being lazy. The book talks about how the majority of people lean into laziness and being unproductive. To be successful means to have good habits and be disciplined with one’s passions and productivity. To persist in accomplishing goals.
I think at the bottom of it, your love for Christ will give you the energy and momentum to accomplish anything you want in life. And self control is a way of getting to your goals, a means to an end. And the prize is salvation through Christ, and getting to know Christ and give up control over your life to Him. Only through by giving up control of your life to God, can you know true self-control.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” - Galatians 5:22-23
