Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
Hebrews 12:9,10
While it was King Solomon who said that there’s nothing new under the sun[1], things don’t just pop up out of nowhere. Everyone, and I mean everyone, builds their invention using ideas from someone else. And once something is created, it doesn’t stop there. It keeps changing. Sometimes in small steps, sometimes through leaps and bounds.
Motion Pictures. Before the cinema, something called a kinetoscope was invented in 1891. It let one person at a time look into a cabinet and see moving images. Thomas Edison took this idea, expanding it, and invented motion pictures. And even though this was used fora long time, all movie theatres have moved away from film and now project using digital technology.
Telegraph. When Samuel Morse sent that first message between Baltimore and Washington, DC in 1844, people were astounded with this new invention. Or what they thought was new. Georges-Louis Le Sage installed an early version between two rooms in his house way back in 1774. The first working system came in 1816 through English inventor Francis Ronalds.
Electric Cars. While most people immediately think of Tesla when it comes to electric vehicles, a number of experimental electric vehicles started popping up in the 1880’s. And they were on the streets of Brintin and the United States in 1897. Studebaker made the first mass-produced electric vehicle in 1902. And much of Tesla’s technology is not new but “off the shelf.”
Computers. Without a doubt, the one technology that controls most of our lives owes a lot to Joseph Marie Jacquard and his 1804 invention. He patented the use of punched cards that controlled how material was weaved. These ideas had a great influence on Charles Babbage, the father of the computer and his 1837 Analytical Engine.
And like all technologies, they changed over time. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes quickly. But the fact is that the current batch of technologies we take for granted are wildly different than how they originally were created or thought of. Just think about your first cell phone and all the capabilities of your smart phone.
Even though the world moves on, there are some things that stay the same. And the memories of our parents’ discipline is one of those stable things. Over and over, our brains keep playing back the same memories and messages that helped to make us the people we’ve become.
In the movie, Two Weeks Notice, Sandra Bullocks’ character talks about how her mother could be difficult. She looks back on her life and sees the incredible and powerful influence her mother has had. “But,” she says, “for better or worse, she’s the voice in my head, pushing me to do better.”
There is discipline that’s abusive, but this isn’t like that. Like most discipline, her mother’s started on the outside. Sometimes it was welcomed. Other times, not so much. But over time and through constant repetition, her discipline made its way inside. It’s become a part of who she is. How she thinks. How she makes decisions. How she acts.
This is the same path that the writer is taking the Hebrews and us down. Discipline from our parents makes us pay attention. Because we live with them, and they’re our parents, there’s no real way to turn away. We’re locked in and riveted to what they believe. What they say. What they expect from us.
So, when it comes to parental discipline, its impact isn’t just for a minute or two. It keeps on going and going like the Energizer Bunny. Respect for our human parents stays with us. Keeps on influencing us. Day after day it’s in our heads and hearts, impacting the way we see the world and act in it.
Even though my mom and dad have been dead for a number of years, I can still see and hear their discipline. Some of it was great. Some of it wasn’t. Some of it was with words. Once in a while it came at the end of my mom’s wooden spoon and my dad’s belt. But all of it made an impression on me. There’s much in my life that’s there because of his discipline
No matter what our discipline experience with our parents, God’s discipline is always for our good. Will we hear that? Will we let it sink in? Will we believe it? Some of us can’t think of any good reason for the hard and harsh times that God has let into our lives. I understand what you’re thinking.
But just because we can’t think of a good reason doesn’t mean that there isn’t one. We’re limited by time and space. Our knowledge has walls based on what we’ve experienced in this life. God has none of these limitations. He’s never had to borrow or build on what someone else has done. What they’ve thought of. So, God’s discipline has none of the problems or limitations like our parents. This gives us the freedom to build our lives on who he is and all he’s doing in our lives.
Noodling Questions
How has your life been built on top of others? Give three examples.
Explain who’s the voice in your head that guides most of your thinking.
Why is building our lives on God the best possible decision to make?
[1] Ecclesiastes 1:9
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