Category Archives: Obedience

To Do or Feel?

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Birgitta loves to read and always has. Because of that, she’s hoping her little Emerald will turn into a reader, too. Although she’s only 12 months, she already has her own bookshelf in our “library,” thanks to Louisa’s “bring-a-book” baby shower. (A Word or Two)

Emerald loves to handle her books and turns their stiff pages with expertise. She knows how to feel the “furry” or “nobby” pages and how to scratch open the peek-a-boo panels on pages with hidden surprises. Today while she was “reading,” though, I noticed something interesting.

Making a choiceThough she had handled a dozen books and was sitting amongst them, the one she kept returning to was a grown-up book she’d pulled from a different shelf. It was a dusty old reference book I’d used in my writing (before PCs and the internet) titled “20,000 WORDS SPELLED AND DIVIDED FOR QUICK REFERENCE.”

Trying to figure out what she liked about this bland book, I experimented with her.

Four different times I coaxed her into one of her toddler books, but each time she’d eventually brush it aside to hunt for “20,000 WORDS,” the book with no pictures or touchy-feely pages. Then she’d carefully finger it with intense concentration.

ConcentrationMaybe today, looking wasn’t as important as feeling.

It reminded me of the way God sometimes works behind the scenes on us. We think he wants us to look at a certain situation with an eye to fixing it, when really what he wants is for us to feel it, not with our hands but in our hearts.

For example, we might read about a family in chaos where the children are being neglected, and we immediately want to do something to right the wrongs. But it’s possible God doesn’t want us to jump in like that. Maybe he wants our hearts to feel such a potent ache that it drives us to prayer for the family rather than trying to fix things. Maybe he wants us behind the scenes requesting that he work wonders amidst the chaos.

So often we think we need to do something, when in reality praying is doing. It’s doing the most powerful, most effective thing possible. The fact that prayer is mostly done in secret and that no one knows about it except God, sometimes makes it more difficult to do. But may we never think that pouring our hearts out to God on someone else’s behalf isn’t as good as accomplishing something visible for them.

Feelin' itAs for Emerald, a few years from now she’ll be able to understand those 20,000 words and probably read them, too. When she does, I hope she’ll use them to talk to God in prayer.

“When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

Trying Hard

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Earlier this week our late-October weather was perfect. With blue skies and light breezes, it was the day we’d been waiting for to have an evening beach fire where the children could gobble down s’mores, enjoy a sunset, and get tired out before bedtime.

Beach fireBy 6:00 pm the winds had picked up and Lake Michigan was working up a good chop, but we did as planned and had a great time. Emerald, still battling a bad cold, was wrapped snugly, content to sit in Louisa’s lap sucking on a pacifier. (Mama Birgitta was attending her university classes.)

As the 3 children raced across the sand toward the ice-cold water, Adam’s one caution was short and clear: “Don’t get your feet wet!”

But when the sun started to drop toward the horizon, so did the temperatures. That’s when the little ones began to feel the full effect of romping too close to disobedience as their wet feet stung with the cold.

Difficult to obeyBy the time we got home, toes were bright red and throbbing. Maybe a lesson in obedience was learned, but it’s probable they’ll have to relearn it again and again.

Skylar, Micah, and Autumn aren’t the only ones with a bent toward doing their own thing rather than heeding the warnings of an authority figure. All of us are in that camp. As adults, when we arrive at the painful consequences of our own poor decisions, we usually feel badly about them and accept blame for the cost of our disobedience. But when we end up waging the same battle again and again, we get downright disgusted with ourselves.

“Wouldn’t it be nice,” we say, “if we didn’t have this natural bent toward insisting on our own way? Life would be so much easier if we’d just do things right the first time.”

Happily, that day will come. Our sinful natures will be history, which is good news for those of us in a continual struggle to hold selfish pride at bay. It’s interesting that the more diligence we demonstrate as we work to tame our wills this side of eternity, the greater God’s approval in the here-and-now. And when he approves, he rewards…. with an increased capacity to fight our self-wills more effectively.

Despite that help for today, though, I’m really looking forward to God’s tomorrow when we’ll no longer have to battle ourselves. Our sin nature will have completely disappeared, and obeying our Supreme Authority will be pure pleasure.

Beyond the sunset some dayAt long last we’ll know what we ought to do and will actually delight in doing it. And that goes for Skylar, Micah, Autumn, and their wet feet, too.

“When we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.” (Romans 6:7)

Dogged Through Life

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I come from a long line of dog-lovers. Both of my folks grew up with dogs and told stories of how difficult it was to eventually say goodbye. Dad liked the trustworthiness of dogs, and Mom saw them as good examples of unconditional love. (She returned the favor by keeping Milk Bones in her purse.)

Toby.Our childhood dog, Toby, lived 16 pampered years with us, but cancer eventually took over. One day while we were all away at college, Mom and Aunt Agnes made the excruciating decision to have Toby put to sleep. It was the kind thing to do, since he was in constant pain. But the minute Mom got home she changed her mind and called the vet. “Don’t do it! I’m coming to get him!”

The vet was one step ahead of her, though. “You’re not the first one to call me back,” he said. “Your Toby is already gone.”

As hard as that was, Mom knew he’d done her a favor. Making that decision once was hard enough. Twice would have been impossible.

She wasn’t dog-lonely for long, however. Through the years, her doggie-desires were abundantly satisfied with lots of grand-dogs, since she and Dad raised a family of dog-lovers, too.

Mom and her 9 grand-dogs

(Montego, Pepper, Gunnar, Wrigley, Sydney, Wilbur, Jack, Strider, Blue)

I think God is pleased when we love the creatures he’s made. That includes dogs, cats, gerbils, canaries, and every other animal people give a name to and care for as family members. Appreciating animals is to appreciate the One who originally gave them to us.

And if that’s true, then valuing the pinnacle of his creation (people) is even more important, more dear to him. We might say, “But animals are easy to love, because they always love you back. People can be downright unlovable. God doesn’t expect us to love that kind.”

Then we read the Bible:“This is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” (1 John 3:11) God’s instruction has always been (and always will be) to love each other and act accordingly. He doesn’t say, “I know it’s hard to love those who make your life miserable, so just love the ones you ‘click’ with.”

Why do we have to love everybody? He gives a two-part answer: (1) “Love them because I love them,” (John 3:16) and (2) “Love the not-so-good-ones because I love you.” (Romans 5:8)

And there’s one more reason. Scripture tells us no one can see God and live afterwards, but if we consistently show love to others, especially to the unlovables, people will see God-in-us, which is exactly the reason he wants us to do it.

Jackie-boy.So when we’re ready to try loving unconditionally, we know where to go for our first lesson: to our doggie friends, because they model it really well.

“If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:11-12)