On Obedience

A couple of weeks ago on retreat the women's ministry director Sheryl Brisbane spoke about "obeying God". Then Alex came home with a flyer from Sunday school "Obey God" it said, a duck underneath. "I don't think I know what this means," my sister commented, and I agreed. I can only imagine what Alex thinks - he was musing that he didn't feel wood in his belly after Easter (a derivation I can only imagine from a combination of the cross and feeling "Jesus in your heart". Ouch!).

Oh, the resistance I feel is so strong whenever anyone mentions I must do something. And even if I got over the resistance part, what the heck am I supposed to do to obey anyhow? I looked up the origin of the word obey and it boils down "to listen, hear". That's not so scary.

Sheryl was talking about obeying God through Jesus' mandate in John 15:  

• This is my commandment: that you love each other as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this—that a man should lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I tell you to do. 

So now, we're talking about obeying God by loving. I think when you're talking about God, you have to start with the people closest to you. And I thought, what am I doing right now for my husband that is a pure act of love, that essentially I get no benefit from?  I honestly couldn't think of a single thing. Sure, I have a laundry list of things I do for the family and for the kids - cook most of the meals, drive the kids around, clean up, take over full time on his frequent business trips - but what do I do only for him? 

I resolved to do two things for him out of pure obedience - things I had previously dropped lest he take me for granted. Laundry and dry cleaning, bring it on. I will do them as an act of love and guard my heart against any resentment - otherwise it's not so loving, is it? 

And God, I'll start by trying to listen more - and by loving the people with whom you've surrounded me.