Suffering is one of the universal experiences of the Church. We are promised that in our walk with Christ we will experience hardship for His sake. Christ addresses this issue in John 16 as He explains to His followers that, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The amount and nature of our tribulations will be different for each believer. Some seem to suffer without end while others appear to escape all but the slightest of inconveniences. Whatever the degree, suffering is a part of the Christian life.

As the ocean receded nearly half a mile from the shore along the coast of Thailand and Indonesia on December 26, 2004, many tourists and natives followed it out in amazement to look for shells. Unfortunately, they did not recognize the danger until it was too late and they were engulfed by the tsunami that eventually claimed more than 160,000 lives.

For me the word discipline brings up many unsavory images. Coming from a family that believed in spanking growing up, I think the word takes me back to two main roots: receiving treatment for behavior that I undoubtedly incurred punishment for, and cartoons of Calvin (from the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”) of having to do things he hated because it built “discipline” and “character”.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I doubt it. So often when I awake in the morning, I'm like a dog with his tail between his legs. Be it actual sin or imagined sin or maybe just some ambiguous feeling of "I could have do that better", I wake up avoiding eye contact with God.