What popped into my mind was, you know, nothing other than a small town's tiny, wooden one-room schoolhouse with a little girl sitting at her desk - ankles crossed and hair neatly curled, tugging at her uncomfortable white collared shirt buttoned all the way up to the top and minding her manners.
Just some simple Wednesday daydreaming in vivid detail. It was all very Mayberry in my head.
It's interesting to consider why that is where my unguided and un-manipulated thoughts veered towards. If I were to consciously have another go, I'd probably think more in terms of what that word obedience intellectually signifies to most (normal) people.
Respect for authority.
Submission.
Maybe even silence or chores if you were a bad little kid. A warning to behave.
Pretty surface level stuff for the most part. And pretty scary, actually. Unpleasant, kind of off-putting.
Just like many children wouldn't appreciate being told to be obedient if it means not doing the thing they'd rather be doing, as adults we have the same reaction. Just in older bodies.
Go to your Facebook, right now.
Do you not have one? You're proving my point.
Facebook is filled with revolutionaries you went to school with in the third grade and protestors disguised as the people you type next to at work. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if you aren't doing it hatefully or to tear others down. We speak up out of a need or a desire to lament the current state of things, to celebrate victories we deem righteous, to share our hearts. If you don't have a Facebook, you're also taking a different kind of stand - against Facebook, against our culture. Maybe a stand for yourself.
When we do these things, in a way we are proving our disobedience to whatever higher authority it is that we disagree with. We speak because we feel others need to know, need to be informed, need to change. And sometimes this is totally righteous and good and healthy. In a sense, we are being disobedient, yes - in maybe a cool way. And perhaps we feel we are also being obedient to our cause or our calling.
So that's a slightly different perspective of obedience. Obedience as nobility.
In Christianity, this of course exists as well. The apostle Paul was obedient to his calling, after having a personal encounter with the risen Jesus Christ and turning from his ways as a Christian persecutor and Pharisee toward an entire life given in devotion to spreading the gospel and message of hope. His obedience was radical.
But it was also sacrificial.
Here is where some of our friends may bow out, take a few steps back, go get a soda.
I'd be willing to argue that I don't think anyone naturally desires to sacrifice any aspect of themselves. When a thing gets too lofty, too seemingly impossible, or even too damaging in one way or another to ourselves and our current modus operandi and maybe even our relationships, we have a tendency to quit while the going gets tough, so to speak.
And we start to react and move full circle back towards the aforementioned stifled schoolgirl image - suddenly obedience begins to look too uncomfortable, and much less noble. It becomes sort of taboo, evoking thoughts of everything that isn't progressive or good to a society that places probably too much value on being free to the point of recklessness. You become less about obedience to your cause, and more about obedience to your own desires.
Jesus was really clear about sacrifice and obedience.
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)
Oof.
But only sort of. Because did you catch that last part?
"...but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
So maybe obedience isn't a dragging our feet thing after all.
Obedience is a trust thing.
But it all is dependent on who you're putting your trust in. That is where the difference lies. Because here Jesus is saying to us that if we give him our literal everything (which is truly a myth as He gives us all things anyway), then in exchange He will give us true life.
Now, this is hard. Because in order to do this, we have to not only trust Jesus, but we have to understand that we might not totally understand what it is He is giving us right away.
Until we get to know Christ, we will be as some of the people of that time were - i.e., a group of people who truly have no idea what He is talking about. Even His own disciples struggled with this. We, like them, might pull away from our one true hope of salvation and the very One who is truth itself as we more or less say right along with them, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (see John 6:60)
But Jesus goes on, and we need to listen too, as he rebukes (sorry, Christianese) them:
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:61-65)
We often think based on that oft-repeated phrase that "seeing is believing". But with Christ, it is truly the other way around. In fact, it is one of many examples in Christianity that are fairly counter-intuitive and seemingly upside-down from the way the rest of the world thinks.
Believe first, and then you will see. Take the step, and then you will understand. Give Him your life and your hopes and your dreams and desires for yourself, and trust that He is kind and faithful and powerful enough to have your best interests in mind and to carry those out for you and with you as you walk with Him.
BUT.
It is HIS plans we need to be seeking. Not our own.
There is nothing wrong with having talents and dreams we yearn to see realized. I have them. Chances are you do too. God gives us gifts and desires for that reason, and often what we are given, including our desires, are indicators of how He will in fact use us. Pray for those things. All the time. He wants us to feel happy and fulfilled. But that is not the end. Our happiness, unlike what this world and the self-help section of Barnes and Noble will tell you, is not the ultimate, end-all-be-all or the "I have finally arrived" goal.
So, this is a really easy thing to talk about in a blog post, and not an easy thing to carry out in our lives, just for the record.
Following Christ is all about the constant transference of ourself over to Christ. Giving Him our lives, our habits, our cushy behaviors and safeguards (and potentially our panic attacks into brown paper bags in the process) as we trust Him to catch us like a big ol' trust exercise. But not only catch us - allow us to soar.
Now I sound like Reading Rainbow or something (I sure am on fire with these TV references), but it's no matter. It's the truth. We have two options. We can trust and obey the Lord and see what extraordinary things He does, or strive and fear and exhaust ourselves as we stick to what we think is safe but is really leading to our own unraveling.
So what it boils down to is this:
Do we trust in God enough to know He has us?
Do we love Him enough to obey Him even when we don't understand (or heck, lets be honest, even if we disagree)?
Are we willing to sacrifice our creature comforts and pour ourselves out on His behalf and in His name simply because it pleases Him when we do so?
Can we do this joyfully out of the overflow of our hearts- and not complain, even if what He's asking of us is difficult, or requiring our patience?
And the real killer:
If necessary, could we give up x y and z and still be "okay" because we have Jesus?
That was a lot of words for an "it boils down to this", but these are all questions we should use to check in and honestly ask ourselves, grapple with, and pray through regularly.
Obedience is not the disgruntled little girl minding her manners. That's carrying out marching orders. That's a chore. That's some real "I want an oompa loompa now!" pouty behavior. (I don't even know anymore.)
Obedience is answering the call of Christ. It can be noble, sure. It can be difficult, absolutely. But it can and should and MUST be carried out with joy. Why? Because that is how others will see the glory of God, and receive hope. Because you know that the Creator of the Universe knows you and loves you and has engraved you on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16). That the Savior of the world calls you His friend and goes to prepare a place for you. He loves you - and because He loves you, He will walk with you and He will quiet you with His peace, and equip you to do all that He has called you to do.
Let's go out and obey our good Lord as He himself obeyed the will of His Father by dying for us on our behalf. His obedience brought us our freedom. With that freedom, let's obey His word and obey His voice. It is the least we could do.
And this is not just to enhance our own lives, though we surely will reap the blessings of making Christ our all and walking in obedience to Him. But when we deny ourselves, we think less about our selves, and less of ourselves. Not only does this allow the Lord to be magnified, but it allows us to be more others-centered too.
Which we need need need in this hurting world, so desperately.
This is all hard to do, but not impossible. Not with God. The Holy Spirit helps us, guides us into truth, gives us wisdom, and gives us power. The power of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit will altogether come alongside us and help us, so we needn't worry about what personal challenges following Christ may cause us.
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, emphasis mine)
Jesus said that wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. That narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (see Matthew 7:13-14) In fact, He promised us tribulation in this world. When the anxieties and worries flare up inside of you and you begin to count the cost of following this Jesus after all...
First of all, read the Psalms. David freaked out a lot too.
BUT ALSO keep in mind Jesus' words in John 16:33:
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
He will supply all of your needs.
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"Tensions and anxieties flame within me the moment I forget I am living my life for the one-man audience of Christ and slip into living my life to assert myself into a competitive world."
-Philip Yancey
"Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him."
-Dr. Charles Stanley
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