The Disciplined Man – Make Decisions Against Yourself - Becoming a DIALED IN Man of God

“An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.” (1 Timothy 3:2, CSB)

“Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.” (Titus 2:2, NASB)

One year, my organization called Men in the Arena sponsored a push-up challenge where participants were invited to do 65,000 push-ups in a year. To hit the challenge goal, we did either 250 push-ups five days a week or 200 six days a week. We designed a great shirt that we vowed to give away free to all the men that finished the challenge. I was initially nervous when 471 people signed up. We are a crowd-funded, nonprofit organization, and that’s a lot of money to raise for shirts!

But at the end of the year, only 41 people finished. Most people would not consider them the strongest men in the group. One was a 12-year-old autistic boy who did the challenge on his own. Another shattered his wrist in a motorcycle accident and was told by doctors he would never do a push-up again. Another man was temporarily paralyzed from his waist down. After interviewing the men who finished, we found we all had one thing in common—the discipline to reject the immediate for the ultimate. Grit. Discipline. Mental toughness.

In 1 Timothy 3:2, Paul used a unique word, sophron, that can be translated in many ways. William Barclay, author of the famous commentary, sounds exasperated by the word in his explanation: “We have translated sōphrōn as prudent, but it is virtually untranslatable. It is variously translated as of sound mind, discreet, prudent, self-controlled, chaste or having complete control over sensual desires. The Greeks derived it from two words that mean to keep one’s mind safe and sound...The one who is sōphrōn is in perfect control of every emotion and instinct…the person who is sōphrōn is the one in whose heart Christ reigns supreme.”

You may have heard the idioms “Get a grip on yourself” and “Lock it down,” meaning suck it up, deal with it, keep your emotions under control. Similarly, sophron means “safe mind” and refers to the ability to put one’s mind in check until its proper time.

I keep my guns in a fireproof gun safe. It weighs hundreds of pounds and requires a key and combination to access its contents. The sophron man is like that. He consistently locks down his mind and makes decisions against his immediate pleasures to achieve his ultimate purpose. One’s emotions, choices, and destiny are only as strong as the walls of the mind that contain them.

If we use the illustration of a gun safe and a man’s mind, we get a picture of a man who not only has complete control of his present circumstances but also how those choices will affect his future—for better or worse. The sophron man locks down unhealthy desires and limits his choices for a better future and the best version of himself. He has learned how to control his passions and channel them accurately and decisively. He keeps his mind locked up like guns in a safe.

Sophron is the ability to make decisions against our immediate impulses to achieve our ultimate dreams. The man who has control over his passions is free to say no to whatever he wants and yes to what is most important. He is free to wait to take action until the timing is right. Freedom is not the right to do what you want even when it’s stupid, but the ability to do as you ought.

Are you a sophron man? Do you routinely reject the immediate for the ultimate? Be the man who sees his future and chooses not to indulge his immediate desires to experience his ultimate best future. Now is the time to make decisions against yourself.

DIAL IT IN:

• Where are you struggling to make decisions against yourself?
• Who else is your struggle negatively affecting?