The Niles Star

There are no shortcuts to anything in the world worth arriving at.

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The Rev. Dan Puckett: Disappointment builds discipline

Published 11:09am Friday, October 23, 2009

There is no short road to learning. There is no shortcut to mastery of art. There is no shortcut to character. We exert ourselves hoping a minimum of effort expended will produce a desired result, but alas, we find that it takes a series of trials and failures to perfect the process of attainment. That is why it is called work. We also find that through the process of work we can achieve.

We live in a God-ordered world. In other words, God is in control. God is not about making our lives easier; He is about making us better people.

In the Old Testament book of Exodus, God’s people, the Israelites, were in slavery in Egypt. They were there for 430 years (Exodus 12:40). God knew they were there because He led them there (Genesis 46:2-4). God’s people developed from a handful to hundreds of thousands of people during those 430 years.

The Egyptians feared the people of Israel, so they made them slaves (Exodus 1:8-13). During this period of slavery, God was forging a nation. The people of Israel could not wander off; they were slaves. They could not intermarry with other races because they were slaves. God was using a mighty and continuing disappointment to build a disciplined people.

In God’s timetable, God moved to extract His people from Egypt and take them back to the land of their forefathers, Canaan, the Promised Land. In Exodus 3:7-8, God declared to Moses, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”

Through a succession of God-ordered calamities on Egypt, the Egyptians were more than eager to send the people of Israel on their way (Exodus 12:31-32). The people went out of Egypt bound for the Promised Land.

End of story, right? No, God was not finished. There was a shortcut from Egypt to Canaan. It was up the Mediterranean coast through Gaza, the land of the Philistines, right into Canaan. But, God had other plans.

We read, in Exodus 13:17-18, “God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.”

The Israelites’ journey was to be the discipline of the desert – the discipline of trusting God – because there was no discernible way to survive there without the provision and protection of God. How disappointed the people must have been. Even though they were slaves, they doubtless knew the local geography. They were to detour from the shortcut to the long road through the desert.

God used the wilderness journey to teach His people many things. There were repeated failures and mistakes, but through it all, God developed a people capable of taking the land He had promised them.

In the New Testament book of James, chapter 1, verses 2-4, James speaks of the process illustrated by God’s people in Exodus: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

There are no shortcuts in life but trials of many kinds. We must remember the whole time that God is leading and is in control. Never despair, disappointment builds discipline.

The Rev. Dan Puckett is a minister with Life Action Ministries.