Faith Venture

“Rigidity is the first sign,” writes Richard Foster, “that discipline has gone to seed.”

I recently told a friend that I had a firm discipline in my morning routine. Rise from bed at about the same time, exercise including Yoga, weights, hot tub (we don’t have a sauna), breakfast, shower, meditate, write. I kept much of it up during the lockdown phase of the pandemic, but not enough. I lost some fitness and gained some weight.

Without undergoing any radical changes, I’ve increased fitness and dropped 10 pounds in the last few months.

Then I recalled this thought from Richard Foster, my spiritual disciplines guru.

We must develop the flexibility mindset that we can deviate from the discipline at times without guilt and regret. Then slip right back into the routine. I’ll have a vacation soon. Most of the routine will be gone. That is OK. I bet even Ignatius of Loyola slipped once in a while.

This entry was posted on August 1, 2022 at 10:05 am and is filed under Disciplines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.