Let's Join the Obedience Canival!



My blogger friend Peter is having an obedience carnival. Unfortunately there are no funnel cakes or lemonade to enjoy while you read, so just pretend your coffee and toast is more exciting than it is.

If you have been reading the Armchair QB posts, you know we are studying the book of Proverbs in church. Sometimes, looking at all the "shoulds" is very frustrating. I think we all want to be more than we are.

The piece of obedience that I have been looking at, gnawing on, twisting to find the best angle, is how to be who I am, who my Father made me to be.

I want to be good. I want to be articulate. I want to be needed, indispensable. I want to be loved by many. I want to be admired. I want to be memorable.

Somehow, trying to live the principles of my faith has almost become a contradiction to those things.

I need to be less. I need to elevate others. I need to be quiet. I need to be supportive. I need to be content rather than ambitious. I need to be loving rather than loved.

This isn't bad, by any stretch of my fertile imagination; It is just this new paradigm, this new understanding that makes so many of my "old" goals and desires irrelevant and obsolete. Where do I go from here? How do I serve from here? What would Dad like me to do?

That question has given me so many opportunities to sit and let needs drift by....looking for the "right" and "called to" service. This year I am reading a chronological Bible, (I admit my class distracted me so that I am about 2 months behind, but I am catching up!) and over and over and over thru many books and pages His Word speaks to me that I should love God, with all of me-my emotions, my thoughts, my actions, my comings and goings & that I should demonstrate this love by caring for others-the orphan, the widow, the unloved, the forgotten.

Do I do that tho? We save seats at church for our dearest friends. Maybe I could save a seat for someone I don't know? When have I bought groceries for the foodbank? Even in this economy, I am more wastefully wealthy that most of the world.

Obviously, I am still gnawing on how to become more obedient to Him. Where are you with this?

Comments

Russell Holloway said…
To be perfectly obedient is not possible for humans. If we were perfect we would not need Grace and would be justified by the Law and not Christ. In my mind, absolute obedience is a goal we cannot obtain. We strive, fall . . . turn to Christ.

Thanks for your post.
October 6, 2009 at 7:25 AM
Helen said…
Obedience doesn't come naturally, that's for sure! Although some things are easier than others.
October 6, 2009 at 8:41 AM
Gigi said…
this being called to live counterintuitively ....simple maybe but NOT / NEVER easy....
October 6, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Anne Lang Bundy said…
I want to be good. I want to be articulate. I want to be needed, indispensable. I want to be loved by many. I want to be admired. I want to be memorable. / Somehow, trying to live the principles of my faith has almost become a contradiction to those things.

Oh man did you nail it! I suppose that the only thing worse than making an idol of someone else is wanting to be an idol ourselves.

Very thought provoking. Thank you.
October 6, 2009 at 2:54 PM
Me said…
Eeeewwww, Anne, you made that so clear...and uncomfortable!
October 6, 2009 at 4:59 PM
Anne Lang Bundy said…
Hey, Jaime, I'm just repeating what I thought I heard the Holy Spirit tell me. (He can be rather graphic at times.)
October 6, 2009 at 8:03 PM
Billy Coffey said…
Obedience to me is a choice I have to make not just every day, but moment to moment. Sometimes I succeed. Many times I fail. But even stumbling can be moving forward.
October 6, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Peter P said…
Too many of us put little emphasis on obedience, preferring to just try to cruise on through our Christian walk.

I hope and pray that God blesses and rewards your efforts to be more obedient!
October 6, 2009 at 11:42 PM
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