The Idea of Discipline

I met up with my co-CGL Joanne this evening for dinner & sharing about our plans for CG 4 next year. It was a very fruitful & interactive time… really thank God for it. It’s like there is some sort of healthy CGL ‘chemistry’ which I found really great & that set the atmosphere of our discussion.

We had dinner at Delifrance opposite St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Firstly, coz the Delifrance at Raffles City had been taken over by Subway (those horrendously extra-large sized breads, which makes me wonder why people call them Subway sandwiches). We chatted about our jobs, before progressing onto CG matters.

Joanne brought up the importance of accountability between CGLs before we can strive to encourage accountability among the youths in our CG. That made a point to me & we decided to begin by meeting up once in 2 months to share & pray about the ongoing situation of our CG. We also agreed to begin doing a synchronized Bible Study from a same book which Joanne has & my brother has (I’ll be borrowing his book) & keep each other accountable for punctuality in coming for Sunday church services. We would be planning to mentor 1 or 2 youths who are teachable as well. Finally, we took a walk to St. Andrew’s Cathedral to find a decently quiet spot at the tables & chairs to pray.

I’m very glad that both of us shared quite a bit this evening. Joanne shared about the possibility of her being sent over to Kuala Lumpur to work from March next year onwards for a long-term period. I’m not sure if she would be given an option to choose whether to go or stay, but she’ll see how when the time comes. As for me, I shared about the difficulties of finding a job & how some of my friends had problems staying in their current job. Just today, one of my ex-StarHub friend just received immediate termination from his company because his boss didn’t think he was performing up to his expectation. Sigh… expectation is a dangerous word. It can be good & bad, depending on the extent of implementation.

But all in all, this idea of accountability (suggested by Joanne) made me ponder deeper into & finally linked this idea to the recent VCD that I watched titled ‘The Pacifier’. It’s an amazing Walt Disney show (not a cartoon), which puts both hope & laughter into the hearts of those who watch it.

I’m not sure if it was supposedly a comedy, I didn’t find it funny at all. In fact, I found this show very encouraging to my heart. The storyline is about this US Navy Seal Lieutenant Shane Wolf who was assigned to look after this family of kids, while their mother had to be called on a code-breaking task at some high level security office. The kids’ father was killed & the military wanted to make sure that his family was well-taken of, while their mother assisted with the code-breaking task at their office.

Those kids were very rowdy… beyond common expression. If I were in Shane’s position, I really wouldn’t know if I could handle these kids…4 of them. Shane did his best to put into place a system of discipline in the house & after many days of quarrels, alarm sirens, cookie-baking, a house-destroying party & changing the baby’s nappy…Shane finally managed to tone them down & the kids grew to respect him, through his efforts in helping out in their lives.

I was very proud of him because he really took his job very seriously. And he meant it when he said to the school principal, “I take my job very seriously.” That kind-of made an impression in my mind, the first time I watched this VCD, because I think this is the kind of person whom people trust & who gets things done. Shane was always in the military & in the military, everything is about discipline. Yet in this show, I saw how discipline can be adapted to fit into our everyday lifestyle, so as to make sure that things get done & people are safe.

I admire Shane because he didn’t shun away from this baby-sitting responsibility, even though he had completely no knowledge whatsoever. Don’t forget, this is entirely different from the military, where soldiers are demanded & expected to follow instructions without question (sometimes blindly, for whatever reason). Shane knew that it would be difficult, but he stuck to the task & earned the respect & liking of those kids. He even used his experience in directing rescue missions & amphibious operations to direct a musical performance (their professional musical director gave up & quit), instilled confidence in the cast & brought loud applause from the audience. I remembered tearing when I saw the part where Shane appeared out from the stage curtains to acknowledge the applause from the cheering crowd. I was so moved… for this is the kind of person who really turns things around… for the better.

All these made an impression in my mind & I began to reflect on how discipline can be adapted in my lifestyle. Although it is true that the Army works on strict discipline, I’m sure that a reasonable form of discipline & flexibility (depending on situational changes) can be incorporated into our lives to make things work out for the better as well.