No Discipline Seems Joyful at Present

This morning I woke up to discover that my hard drive is shot. This means that my computer will be out of service for a while. I lost quite a few important documents, but thankfully I backed up the majority of what I needed before the computer crashed. When I bought the computer I wisely purchased a four year complete care package (wisely, in hindsight that is!) and will therefore be getting a new hard drive and new Windows software in the mail. All of that is to say that in God’s mercy I will not have lost all of my work over that I have done over the last five years. But the question that has to be asked is, “Why did this happen?” I realize that we, unlike the Puritans, are very slow to see an event like this as being chastisement for our sins, but it is probably just that. I have, many times, ran to the computer rather than running to the Lord. I have, many times, put the computer before my wife and son. This is a loving chastisement from the Lord for putting other gods before Him. As the writer of Hebrews says, “No chastening seems joyful at present, but painful, nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness by those who are trained by it.” This is certainly no joyful experience but my hope is that, by God’s grace, I will be trianed by it and in the end be more like my Savior Jesus Christ.” May we all learn to receive the chastening of the Lord, knowing that the Lord chastens every son whom he receives.