How to Enter the Narrow Gate:Self-discipline

First, it's been almost a month since my last posting.  Sorry for the delay.

Second, there are several people I know with a cancer diagnosis right now.  Please lift them up in prayer right now, for healing and health.  The tribulation these people have to endure lends itself to todays meditation.  They are travelling through the narrow gate.  Our Father.... Hail Mary....  Glory Be....  Thank you for Tom, Stacy, Lori, Jennifer and others out there unknown or un-named.
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As Thomas a'Kempis likes to do, he lists comparisons contrasting our lives now, and what it takes to enter in through the narrow gate (Matt 7:13-14), with the easy lazy spiritual life. 

He tells us that exercising self-discipline now will result in enjoyment in Paradise with Christ:    We can overcome this  fear of eternal separation from God by entering into His reality now.  It is a reality of Love.  Love is the opposite of fear.

From Book 1, Chapter 24, Para 5 & 6.

5. Then shall it be seen that it was the wise in this world who learned for Christ’s sake to be foolish and scorned.

• Then shall all tribulation that has been patiently borne delight us, while the mouth of the ungodly shall be stopped (Ps 107:42).

• Then shall devout rejoice, and the profane shall mourn.

• Then the flesh that has been disciplined shall triumph more than if it had been always pampered in delights.

• Then the humble garment shall reveal its beauty, and the precious robe shall hide itself as rags.

• Then shall the poor cottage shall be held up as more commended than the gilded palace.

• Then long-lasting patience shall have more might than all the power of the world.

• Then simple obedience shall be more highly exalted than the craftiness of the worldly .

6. Then a pure and good conscience shall more rejoice than learned philosophy.


• Then will the disregard of wealth shall have more weight than all the treasure of the children of this world.

• Then shall you find more comfort in having prayed devoutly than in having eaten sumptuously.

• Then you will rejoice more in having kept silent than in having made long speeches.

• Then holy deeds shall be far stronger than many fine words (Jas 1:21-22 and following).

• Then a disciplined life and sincere penitence shall bring deeper pleasure than the delights of this world.


Christ The King



• Therefore, learn now to suffer a little, so that later you may be able to escape more grievous suffering. Try first here, what you are unable to endure hereafter.

• If now you can bear so little, how then will you be able to endure eternal torments? If now a little suffering makes you so impatient, what shall hellfire do then?

• Surely you are cannot able to have both Paradises: taking your fill here in this world, and also reigning with Christ hereafter.

  Thomas' conclusions of these two paragraphs are typical of his plain-spoken nature:  He presents us with the obvious.  Like exercising a muscle, he tells us to work on those behaviors and attitudes NOW which keep us distant from God.  He then tells us what we hear all the time:  You can't have it both ways!

Until next time, thanks for reading and praying along with me.
tim