Practice... Yeilds the Peaceful Fruit

"I ask for the desire to pray and meditate regularly.  I pray to know God's will for my community of faith.  I ask for patience, tolerance, gentleness, empathy, and compassion.  I ask to abstain from shame, discouragement, anger, anxiety, and compulsive behaviour.  I pray to know Jesus more intimately, love him more fully an follow him more closely.  I pray to experience myself and others the way Christ experiences us, as made in the image and likeness of God. 
"In particular today, I feel challenged by a number of individuals who seem set on blaming everyone else for all that is going ill in their world.  I recognize my own fear that they will start blaming me for what challenges them and know that I cannot feel empathy when faced with that fear.  I fear that I simply cannot help them.  I ask to be present to their need and their pain and to not myself become defensive."


Hebrews 12:5-11
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—
‘My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
   or lose heart when you are punished by him;
⁶ for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
   and chastises every child whom he accepts.’
⁷Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? ⁸If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. ⁹Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. ¹¹Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.


1) "do not... lose heart;" "Endure trials for the sake of discipline;" "...be subject to the Father of spirits and live;" "...disciplines us for our good," "...that we may share his holiness;" "...it yields the peaceful fruit;"
2) My first impulse is to replace "discipline" with "practice."  This text feels patronizing and I bristle against that.  And, I have always been partial to "discipline" but have found "practice" to be more effective... and more in keeping with the prayer for "gentleness."  So I am being practiced, and yes, some practices are taxing and even painful rather than pleasant at the time.  I'm hearing a call to trust and endure.  I am not finished yet.  I am still growing, "the growth comes from God" from the Romans text I preached on last Sunday.  Sometimes that growth is really difficult, frightening and sometimes I fail because I'm just not that good yet.  And the scales keep getting harder!
3) What is the invitation in all this? to trust that God is practicing the very skills and dispositions I'm asking for: empathy, compassion, gentleness, patience, tolerance.  I wish I was there already.


"Holy One, help me come to my practice with joy and enthusiasm for the peaceful fruit that is promised.  And keep me from discouragement when I fail to meet my own (and others') expectations."


Breathprayer: "Practice... yields the peaceful fruit."