Okay, so today I was gonna participate in a “serious” blog carnival hosted by a really cool British expat pastor guy named Peter Pollock. I like what he writes; it always makes you think. Anyway, his carnival today has a topic that everyone is supposed to write about:
Obedience.
Watch your step. The irony is pretty thick in here. I’m “supposed” to write about obedience. Me. You do know how I react whenever someone tells me I’m SUPPOSED to do anything, right? Disobedience. Rebellion.
This makes for a fairly challenging writing process.
I don’t wanna.
But I know I need to.
You can’t make me.
I made a commitment.
Oh me, I am SO unwell; I simply cannot post.
Shut up you big baby.
You’re not the boss of me.
As you can imagine, that went well.
Now it’s officially Tuesday, and I gotta get this off my to-do list.
My thoughts on obedience are as follows:
Some of us [raising hand] seem more naturally inclined to disobey.
The more confident those people are I am of the “rightness” of my perspective, the less likely I am to submit to someone else’s wisdom.
If I question the motives of the “leader,” I’m very likely to dismiss his/her wishes.
Therefore, for me to WANT to follow you, it seems logical that I need to trust your motives AND your wisdom.
For that matter (just to make this a parenting post too), if I want to get my kids to submit to my authority, all I need to do is convince them that I know and want the best for them.
Alrighty. That’s tied up all nice and tidy, isn’t it? Nice work, Self.
Waaaaait a minute. If that’s true of me, then why don’t I naturally want to follow God? And if that parenting strategy works, then why am I the mother of three hooligans?
Ahhhh. It’s that pesky free will, immune to logic. The reason why behavior modification never truly “works” in parenting.
Because if you ask my children if I am wiser than they, the urchins will say yes. If you ask them whether I love them or not, they will insist that I love them.
And then they will turn around and do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what I’ve clearly requested.
If you ask ME if GOD is trustworthy and wise, I will say YES. ABSOLUTELY. HE’S GOD, AFTER ALL.
DUH.
And yet every day I fight a battle within myself to actually live my life according to His purpose.
Why do we do that?
It’s a Catch-22. An infinite loop. Cognitive dissonance. My disobedience is not reasonable or logical or surmountable by ME.
So here’s the thing that I’ve concluded:
Because I DID choose a long time ago to trust God’s love and wisdom (and his method for rescuing me from the infinite loop),
I HAVE A WAY OUT.
Not an easy way out. (I’ve been searching for THAT for over 35 years. No dice.)
But a WAY OUT. Because the ME inside of me is no longer alone and unchallenged. The Holy Spirit has infused my soul, and He’ll put up a fight if I ask him to. And he’s fully capable of winning.
Without God, it is impossible. But with him ALL things are possible.
Even getting Stephanie to write a post that she doesn’t want to about a topic that she doesn’t want to address.
Pretty impressive, Holy Spirit. Pretty impressive.
PS This turned out to be a pretty good What I Learned This Week post too, so I’m gonna link up for THAT too.
PPS You knew I had to do SOMETHING rebellious, didn’t you?
Visit Peter’s Rediscovering the Church for more posts on Obedience.
And Musings of a Housewife to see what people have learned about a lot of things.
19 responses so far ↓
1 Sarah Salter // Oct 6, 2009 at 9:56 am
Great insight here, Steph! Don’t you love how illogical reality can be sometimes? Yeah. Me neither.
Thanks for posting!
2 Russell Holloway // Oct 6, 2009 at 10:25 am
I enjoyed your insight, confession, and conclusion…
3 janmary, n ireland // Oct 6, 2009 at 10:29 am
Great post and great lesson – even if you didn’t really want to!
4 Helen // Oct 6, 2009 at 11:02 am
Yep. Freewill can be pesky that way. But it makes obedience beautiful instead of creepy.
5 Bridget Chumbley // Oct 6, 2009 at 11:08 am
Hooligans…LOL
What a great post, Steph!
6 joyce // Oct 6, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Excellent post!
7 Beth // Oct 6, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Amen. To all of the above!
8 jasonS // Oct 6, 2009 at 1:40 pm
This is great. Laughter and the sting of truth always go well together.
9 Terra // Oct 6, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Well said. Very well said. I sending on to some friends.
10 Melissa from the Blue House // Oct 6, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I don’t think there is any possible way we humans can be obedient…. because if we COULD, there would be no need for grace.
That goes for parents too… sometimes I wonder if its more about the parent learning grace and patience than about the hooligan children learning to obey? Because its not that they won’t obey, they can’t.
(If that made any sense at all…)
11 Billy Coffey // Oct 6, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Ah Steph, I can always count on you to make me feel better about myself (and that’s a compliment). Maybe next time I’ll start a carnival about DISobedience. It’ll be a reverse psychology thing.
12 Candy // Oct 6, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I haven’t heard the term “cognitive dissonance” since my psych days (classes, not hospitalizations). It certainly conjures up thoughts of disobedience. Great thoughts, Steph. If this blog carnival was longer than 24 hrs, I might be able to get a post up. But….good night! It’s my way of rebelling.
13 katdish // Oct 7, 2009 at 12:10 am
I knew I could count on you to not want to write this post! Yay us!
Having said that, you did it. And it was truly awesome. One of my favorites.
14 Peter P // Oct 7, 2009 at 12:21 am
Wow.
I didn’t think you were going to do it but, to be honest, that was in my top 20 favorite posts from the carnival.
15 Lessons in Obedience // Oct 7, 2009 at 2:02 am
[...] Steph wrote about why she wasn’t going to join in with the carnival [...]
16 Jojo Agot // Oct 7, 2009 at 2:52 am
i agree with jasonS, laughter and the sting of truth go well together. nice insights here.
17 sarah (GenMom) // Oct 7, 2009 at 5:39 am
Great post! Good thoughts and conclusions.
18 Wendy // Oct 7, 2009 at 10:52 am
I was going to leave a comment, but that’s just what you’d be expecting me to do. So I’m not gonna do it. Hmph.
19 Ginny (MAD21) // Oct 7, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Wow. For someone who was fighting [herself] so much about writing on this topic, you did a really great job! I’m glad you won the battle to obey… or did you?
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