Monday, February 27, 2012

double your productivity

I was disturbed to look at the National Geographic pictures (January 2012 publication) of people in Cambodia who have lost limbs because of land mines, but one fact caught my attention even more than the sad pictures of maimed civilians. 

There’s a clear link between land mine contamination and poverty.” 

One village chief said, “We did not have enough food to eat.  We could not grow rice on our own land because the soldiers had laid the mines.”   

Cambodia has been clearing its land of mines for over 10 years, and in that time personal income in the country has doubled. 

We all feel the obvious, immediate effects of lacking self discipline –obesity, broken relationships, credit card bills, filthy house…Like the missing limb of a child who has stepped in the wrong place. 

But have you ever considered that the mines of undiscipline in the fields of your life not only pose a danger to you but, by their very presence, are keeping you in poverty?  I urge you to look at all the land that could be planted, could be producing, could be bringing a richness to your life and to the lives of others. 

Here’s my paraphrase of 2 Peter 2:5,6,8.  “Once you have faith in Christ, take a metal detector to the field of your life.  Get down on your hands and knees and disarm, one at a time, each landmine of undiscipline.  If you do this meticulously, it will keep you from having to stare at your life, wondering why you own so much fertile land but feel so poor.

1 comment:

  1. Such hard, good, gut-wretching stuff! I am encouraged to tackle and disarm ONE at a time.
    Thank you for this!

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