Discipline

On Thursday, 15th January 2009, Flight 1549 too off from LaGuardia, New York, heading for North Caroline with 155 passengers and crew on board. Just one minute into the flight, the plane experienced a massive bird strike and all power was lost in both engines.

Faced with a pilot’s worst nightmare, Captain Chesley Sullenberger contacted the ground and weighted up his options. Almost immediately it was obvious that a return to LaGuardia was not on the cards, neither was the short flight to Teteboro, New Jersey. So with time running out and a calmness that revealed nothing of his inner turmoil, Captain Sullenberger spoke what most assumed would be his last words: ‘We’ll be in the Hudson.’

The fact that Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River in one piece, without loss of life or serious injury was deemed nothing short of a miracle – and it some ways it was. But as Sullenberger revealed in an interview a few weeks later, he wasn’t praying during those five short minutes – ‘I assumed others were taking care of that.’ – What he was doing was responding to a unique situation as if it happened all the time.

After forty years as a pilot, Sullenberger reacted to the dilemma facing him as if it was second nature. His decision to ditch in the Hudson River wasn’t made because the rules told him that was the right thing to do. Neither was he making the decision based on the possible consequences of doing so – after all, planes are not designed to land on water, and most attempts have ended in complete catastrophe.

What allowed Captain Sullenberger to make the decision that turned out to be the ‘miracle on the Hudson’ was forty years of experience, training and discipline. Through hundreds and hundreds of flying hours, he had developed a set of habits and skills that, though now second nature to him, allowed him to make decisions that were not the obvious choices to make nor the ones that his pilot’s manual would have told him to choose.

Moral success is every bit as much about the formation of good habits over time and through disciplined effort, as any other skill. And the point of all this training and discipline is that on the day – at the moment of decision – you do the right things naturally.

Source: Different Eyes: The Art Of Living Beautifully by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, p.63-64

If you are a Christian, you are going to be pruned. Count on it. (…) God cuts off branches that we feel are productive so that more fruit may be produced. This can be confusing. We believe we are being fruitful and are puzzled, even frustrated, by God’s pruning. We ask, “Why are you doing this God?” (…) Isn’t that what we say when he prunes us? “Don’t you love me? Don’t you care? Don’t you see what’s going on?” And we think God is angry with us. No, he’s not angry. One of the biggest mistakes Christians make is confusing pruning with punishment. Pruning is not punishment, so don’t equate the two. God is not angry with you. He just sees that you are someone who can bear more fruit, someone who has the potential for greatness; someone he wants to use in a significant way. He wants you to be as fruitful as you possible can be, so he prunes you back, even loping off some of the things he has been blessing in your life. (…) It is not just deadwood that goes. God often cuts back good things too, in order to make us healthier. It is not always pleasant, but pruning is absolutely essential for spiritual growth. It is not optional. Remember, God is glorified when we bear “much fruit” (John 15:8), and that requires pruning.

Rick Warren

Rick Warren, God’s Power To Change Your Life, 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, p.224-225