The 3D Life
[ Extracted and edited from D2Y2 Magazine – Issue 6, December – March 2010 ]
I have learnt that in order to live a successful, victorious and fulfilling life, one must live by the 3Ds – Desire, Discipline and Delight!
DESIRE
Desire is where it all starts. Without it, success has no firm footing. Many people think that because we have had so many success stories with turning young lives around, we can “magically” repeat the same with every and any troubled teen. That is an incorrect perception.
Firstly, it is only God by His Spirit who can truly touch hearts and turn lives around. And we give Him all the glory for every success story. But equally important for success to be remotely possible is that the young person want or desire change! Without it, no matter who or how much help is given, that youth will go back to the life he or she came from. Why?! Simply because they never left it to begin with. There was no real desire or will for change.
If we cannot discipline our lives, we cannot be called disciples.
DISCIPLINE
While desire is so important for dreams to come true, it is not enough. Discipline is what’s desperately needed next and this is where most of us fail. Too many of us live by our emotions and feelings instead of purpose and priorities.
We are not accountable for how we spend our days and we do not know where our time has flown to. That is why many do not get to see what they have set out to accomplish, nor are they any closer to living their dreams, even as each year draws to a close.
We still desire but we have not really moved from desire. We started well but we did not really continue. And discipline is the key to continue! It is said of the early disciples that “they continued in the apostles’ doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread and prayer”, Acts 2:42 and the rest is history.
That is what the disciples did and why they are called disciples in the first place. They followed a discipline daily. And because of that daily discipline, the people in Antioch looked at the consistency of their lives and had no other fitting name than to call these disciples Christians, after the One whom they so faithfully followed after.
That is what faithfulness is – doing something you believe in over and over again, no matter what, even and especially in times when it gets really boring or burdensome, and when every emotion in your body tells you to give up!
It is a little rough and tough to say the next sentence but I think we need a challenge. If we cannot discipline our lives, we cannot be called disciples. A disciplined life is one that speaks clearly of purpose, power (willpower), passion and priority. It is, I believe, for many of us, that one key ingredient that will position us for prosperity. Above all, I believe discipline ultimately defines the person and it can be said that a person without discipline is also a person without purpose, power, passion or priorities.
Are you looking for answers to your breakthrough? Try discipline today and keep at it everyday no matter what or how you feel. Now that is true commitment and l guarantee you are going to see the change you have desired. Just do it!
If discipline is “have to” then delight is “want to”.
DELIGHT
But make sure you do not worship discipline. Discipline must be our servant and never the other way round. It must be a means to an end and not the end itself. This is where delight comes in. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you (form in you) the desires of your heart,” Psalm 37:4.
If discipline is “have to” then delight is “want to”. And while we may need to start the process towards success today by committing our lives to a list of “have to’s”, the aim is to grow to a place of “want to’s”.
Taking the activity of losing weight for an example, many of us desire to but do not have the discipline to. But once we commit to a daily routine of proper exercise and healthy eating habits, we start to experience the change we have always desired and more! Even our stamina improves along with our confidence.
Then, like many of us, especially after some drastic improvements, we start to waver and return slowly but surely to our old habits. Why?! Maybe because the change was too rapid and instead of learning to enjoy your new lifestyle, you just wanted to fit into that new dress or impress that new girl at campus.
Mostly, it is because we did not move from discipline to delight, or list to lifestyle, and never really gave ourselves a chance to really like what we were doing. That goes for marriage as well as ministry and everything else in between.
It is also the reason why prayer, fasting and evangelism have become items for yearly projects and programmes instead of an all round lifestyle of purpose and passion. “Anag” is the Hebrew word for delight and it means to be soft and pliable.
As we desire and discipline ourselves today towards the godly goals that we have set for our lives, may we also succeed in being completely changed from the inside out as we learn daily, in all that we do, to delight in the God that created us.
Desire, Discipline and Delight. Wishing you a significant, successful and stress-free life all year round!
D2Y2, which stands for Don’t Despise Your Youth, was an official Asian Youth Ambassador (AYA) magazine birthed out in the late 90s. The printed materials communicated dynamic and effective encouragement to and from the Church, with special emphasis on the knowledge and experiences of our Christian youths, which we believe the content is still relevant and applicable in this current generation.