404 error, how to be super disciplined

Perhaps you’ve noticed that computer screens are increasingly appearing on gas pumps these days. We no longer have a choice to be in front of one, there they are; Bam! Right in front of your face, whether you like it or not! Perhaps some kid working in marketing thought it would be a great way to get customers distracted from the crime surrounding the Quickie Market, or the high price of gas. In either case, it worked, because as I pumped the gas into my car I watched Ms. Rachel Cook up her favorite dinner dumplings. Then while absorbed and transfixed on the screen, I forgot what my next task was.

CVS! Yes, that’s the next place! At check out, the clerk asks me if I want give a review on my computer when I get home “no,” I retort. On my way home, my daughter called to tell me how little Johnny is doing in school, she says she had to spend over an hour registering for different activities online and that was only after she helped him with his homework, conveniently located online! “That’s terrible” I tell her as drive along while looking at the maps screen on my dashboard.

I used to be a disciplined person, really! Able to read maps faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a mouse moving across a pad and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! If I look around me at the folks I admire, they are working hard to stay away from screens.

They still get up early, go work out, make time for prayer, make something using their minds, clean up their workspace, set deadlines, say yes to only the things that matter, keep promises to themselves, focus, surround themselves with folks who are equally disciplined and are always shooting for an upward trajectory which means, making the cuts and avoiding the obstacles that are people and screens that pull them back and distract.

These disciplined folks I admire seem to have evolved right along with the prevalence of screens and trained themselves to avoid them!  Through intense self discipline they seem to avoid the magical colorful world of addictive screen hypnosis. It’s a relatively new discipline, one that parents would do well to introduce to their children too.  I find myself thinking… “just say no to screens, just say no to screens!”  Geeze, I sound like Nancy Reagan.

Hebrews 12:11- “For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than a pleasant, but later it yields that peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Even in this technology filled world, ancient wisdom still applies- Discipline might not get us the powers of flight, superhuman strength, x-ray vision, heat vision,  super-speed, and enhanced hearing, but it sure beats staring at a screen for the rest of your life!