Christian Living

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THE HEART OF OBEDIENCE


Prologue
It was a dread-filled sleepless night. Though we prayed with intensity, when came the morning, our beloved 18 year-old daughter’s bed was still empty, confirming our worst fears. She was indeed gone.
It is a heartbreaker to recall. She’d swept into the room full of smiles and high excitement. “We’re off to take Senior pictures,” she’d lied, taking up the small case. “I’ve a couple of outfits, we’re taking different shots, for fun.”
“Sounds great! See you later.”
“Love you!”
“Love you, too.”
Beautiful, smart, witty, creative, (ostensibly) godly, relational, she decided she’d had enough of her life of obedient normalcy. Her 22 year-old boyfriend waited across town. They were off to Texas to join the carnival.
“I want my own life.” We finally heard from her after horrific days of not knowing. “I may be making mistakes but they’re my mistakes. It’s my life, my choice.”
The deepest cut lingered in her parting words, “Love you!” The crowning sorrow came, not through the ultimate act of disobedience but rather, via relational rejection.
In the midst of my “crying to Daddy” I felt the Heavenly Father saying He shared my sorrow and I was experiencing what He feels all too often.
I realized it’s a common misconception that the act of obedience is a choice. If it comes to choosing we have already failed. Obedience is the fruit of relational decisions. From the beginning, Abba’s heart has been for mankind to enjoy paradise. And, from the same, the heart of man has been divided between embracing relationship or walking in self-determination.
Three narratives beg our attention.

In the Beginning
Came the evening of the fateful day. It seemed as the myriad before. Yet He sensed all creation held its breath in fearful anticipation of what was to come. He could envision the glory of the culmination, but the intervening sorrow seemed such a high price to pay, crowned with the highest of all. For an instant all seemed as one and there was fullness of joy. Then His foot brushed the soil and the joy faded. The time for accounting drew nigh.
With a grieving heart He called. Yesterday they had come running, laughing, delighted to be with Him. He longed to step back into that day, to dance once more, to be one in mind, heart and spirit. But never again. The seed of the lie was already sprouting, bursting forth, bearing fruit. Even as the bounty of the earth had in one day, so had the curse. In one day.
Time and again He called, ‘til trembling they came. They seemed small, dark, mere shadows of who they had been. He had to pause, breathe deep, then speak. They had chosen. It had been their right. He had given them that freedom. Yet even now He longed to embrace them. But as His hand moved, they shied, flinched, drew back. Though His resolve was granite, His eyes were liquid. They were no longer His. They were their own.
He wanted to roar, to rage;
“Is it worth the price, to choose your own way?
To be self-directed, that you might disobey?
To take what we had; peace, joy and love.
To cast 'Us' down and rise above
'I'.”

He had to step back, away from His zeal lest it incinerate them. Back into the rest of untime. He pitied the captives locked in time's fearsome embrace. He knew what they could not, though He tried to make them understand. In the end they fled before Him, down the path to death that would bring life. It had begun.

Romans 5:19. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Would we so cherish self-determination? At what cost? What is treasure? What is trash?

The Tradeoff
The young warrior burst into the room startling the prophet from prayer. His heaving chest and dusty, sweat streaked countenance declared the many miles he had run.
“All praise to Yahweh!”
Samuel caught him as he fell.
“The king?” concern weighed his voice.
“May…he…live…forever. Father, the victory is complete!”
“All praise indeed!’

But in the night his satisfaction turned to sorrow as the word of truth came.
The next day the word was confirmed, the king did not come. With heavy heart Samuel sought him out.
In Carmel the grand monument rose before him, a freshly built symbol of the king’s highest affection, a tribute to his own glory and might. Again he grieved.
It was as he had feared for so long. The king, himself the outcome of the nation’s rejection of God, expressed the same spirit. Self-exalting, crowd pleasing, rebellious, he again offered a compromised alternative to truehearted devotion. Not a man with a heart for God, rather one who comprehends Him through ritual, form and the devotion of others.
“But I did obey!” the confronted king rationalized. “I did as I was sent to do. The Amalekites have been exterminated. Agag alone lives (kings spare kings). As for the plunder, the people wanted to offer it in sacrifice to the Lord your God. I was afraid of what they might do. I do not see the problem!”
“That is the problem, Saul. You do not see. You have no understanding. You have turned your back on the Lord, so He has turned His back on you as king. What you compromised to secure you have lost.”

I Samuel 15:22b To obey is better than sacrifice.

In our striving have we turned our backs? What do our monuments proclaim about our affection? Have we offered faint-hearted pseudo obedience, a bitter fruit of our lack of heart contact with the True Vine? Have we traded off relationship for gain?

Embracing Abba’s Heart
The young students sit as reflections of their masters, striving to be faithful reproductions.
On the periphery prowls the interloper, a dusty, rumpled country boy. He’s been here two days drawing glances of distain. Some would remove him but the master teacher beckons. The lad comes and sits before him, oblivious to convention and protocol. The teaching proceeds orderly, methodically, the teachers eliciting responses from their students. Then a young voice rises up, quavering with youth, but firm in conviction. “But why? Does not the Prophet clearly state the Gentiles will yet be gathered as well?” There is a ruffling of robes and a rising rumble of resentment.
“Ah, our young visitor raises an important point.” Gamaliel's voice cuts through the growing growl and it transforms.
“Truly, truly.”
His gaze is intense, his eyes alight. Platitudes will not satisfy this one.
Gamaliel feels strangely challenged, it’s as if he were the student, responding to the master. He smiles, then, drawing from treasure within, shares the Father's heart for the nations. It is so clear, so fresh, so unconventional. Verse upon verse takes him higher. It is beyond Talmud. It is pure Torah. Those about are in awe. The scratching of scribes upon tablets sound as saws hewing timbers. The youngster sits motionless before him, no scribe, no tablet. Gameliel meets his eyes. They are full of tears. “Yes,” The boy nods. The tears run down. “Amen.”
So the morning flows. The crowd swells as the word goes forth. “The presence of the Lord is upon Gamaliel!” Even teachers grasp tablet and scribe. The interloper seems unaware of the furor he is causing, his ingenious questions goading the master to ever-higher insights. Then, to an especially challenging one, Gamaliel reflects then settles into the formal role. “But what say you, young man?” He reads no fear on the countenance, only a settled assurance.
“Abba's truth is so clear. For those who truly love Him, to walk His ways is a delight. We must listen and trust, allow His will to be done in our lives.” He begins citing scripture upon scripture, clearly, succinctly, provocatively.
Gamaliel muses, not even a hint of rabbinical reference. Then an awed hush settles over his soul. This is profound. As the boy concludes it is so quiet street noise filters in.
Suddenly there’s tumult and a woman's passionate cry. “There he is!” She bursts upon the scene. The spell is broken. Gamaliel senses closure, not disruption. He invites her in, passed those who would keep her out. She falls upon the boy, shaking with emotion. An older man in soiled travel clothes and embarrassed expression follows in her wake. “He is our son.”
“Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
“Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be about my Father?”
The words hit Gamaliel like a tidal wave. He'd heard the tales from the old man, even at Simeon's death bed.
“Wait!”
But they are gone.
“Now I understand,” he whispers. “Thank you, Abba.”

Luke 2:51a-52. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them… And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Hebrews 5:8. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.

Do our hearts long for Abba? For His truths, His ways? Do His words bring tears to our eyes, His ways bring joy to our souls? Do we long to know Him more, to be about our Father?

Epilogue
Two thoughts from a prodigal who came home.
In order to be discipled by others a person must have a trusting heart, one that listens even when it doesn't fully comprehend or see the end result.
Teachability and trust always leads to total obedience.
Ed Townsend – Pastor’s son, Motown artist, suicidal addict/wastrel, ministry leader.
And so I pray and trust for my prodigal, that she might, as well, hear Abba’s call.


The End

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