You can’t see the picture when you are inside the frame. Any coming break from the normal routine gives us a chance to step outside the picture of our lives in some way or other. Yesterday our groups spent some time talking about discipline when Paul told Timothy that Paul had kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). Some people mentioned that discipline doesn’t just mean holding on to something. Discipline means holding on to the right thing when you move to uncharted territory. Because of the nature of time, each of us stands on the brink of something new, whether we like it or not. It takes discipline to keep focusing on what is important in the midst of what feels like a tsunami of changing circumstances.

We waste a lot of our energy fighting the wrong fights. Matadors who flash a cape before a bull or generals setting up a fake military attack understand this principle. Paul tells Timothy to fight the right fight–the fight of faith (2 Timothy 6:12). For Paul, this involves choosing to see God’s invisible love in the midst of a range of countervailing visible circumstances.

A tsunami of change will come towards us know matter what. When we step back from our normal frame of reference in the holidays, lets choose to fight the right fight.