Monday Musings - discipulus

Take a quick browse of my blog and you will very quickly establish that one of the things I've always struggled with is discipline.  I see it as something that is super important, but I've never been able to crack it - it always feels so restrictive, so mundane, so "I just have to be more disciplined..."

A few days ago, for no apparent reason, I had this question pop into my head...

"I wonder if disciple and discipline come from the same root word...?"

Digging around led to a discovery that yes, in fact both do come from the same word - discipulus - which in general means "to learn" (you can do further research into the full meanings of both words if you like - I was excited and had enough thoughts from my initial discovery that they were linked...)

I have heard others talk before about different ways we can understand discipline - being disciplined as it relates to getting priorities in order; being disciplined by someone else as punishment; a particular area of learning (the discipline of science, mathematics, ...).  In general, though, I've always come back to my short fall of not being disciplined enough, meaning "I need to get my habits in order, set up my schedule and be disciplined in sticking to it, so that I get to the gym the number of times per week I want to, spend time with God, read books, ..."

Disciple, on the other hand has always been a very rich term for me - a lifelong learner, someone under someone else's guidance, not just about learning from an intellectual stance, but learning experientially as well.  I love that Jesus uses that as the term to describe the sorts of people he wants us to be.

To recognize that these two are in fact linked is fascinating to me.  Is there a possibility that rather than feeling the need to be more disciplined, I need to recognize that in order to continue to learn, to grow, to be a fuller disciple, that's what I'm aspiring to?

It's not about getting my week in order for the sake of being a disciplined person, it's about being a disciple, a learner and setting myself up to keep learning by being in places where I can grow.  Maybe I need to invent a new word to help me understand it - disciple-ability; discipline-ness; obviously disciple-ship is out there, too... (but interestingly often has different connotations...)

If I step back and ask the question "In which areas of my life do I want to grow/learn?", that should provide me with some ideas about how I can grow/learn, which then sets priorities and choices... = discipline.  Interesting to keep thinking about...

Which word do you resonate with more - disciple or discipline?
Which areas of your life do you feel most excited about learning and growing?
How can you focus more on those areas to grow in your disciple-ability?