Slow Obedience

I'm not a parent yet, but I feel like there has to be some sort of ancient parenting phrase-book that you receive when you have your first child. There are things that all parents say that just seem to keep getting repeated throughout history. Does that book exist? I probably won't know until I have kids. I'm sure everyone is sworn to secrecy, of course.

One thing I can still hear my parents saying to me is this: "Slow Obedience is No Obedience." That's an all-star phrase. 

This phrase would always come out when I was laying on the couch, still in bed, or in some state of absolute comfort, and my mom would ask me to get up and do something productive. Whether it was cleaning my room, doing the dishes, or going to school, it never seemed worth it at the time. It always seemed like the worst thing ever. And what was my response, every single time? “Five minutes.” I don’t know how five minutes became the catch-all time period, but it always seemed like my perfect solution: just five more minutes. Then I’d hear it: "Slow Obedience is No Obedience." 

When my parents would say that, the real question they were asking in that moment was, “Are you listening to me?” They wanted to know that I wasn’t pulling the classic teenager, "uh-huh," just to get them to stop talking. They wanted to know (1) that I was really listening and (2) that I was going to do something about it.

I sometimes find myself acting like 13-year-old-me in my faith. There are things that I know I should do or be, but when these things actually come up, I'm nowhere to be found. But I can't escape that phrase: "Slow Obedience is No Obedience."

James wrote this in James 1:22-25:

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

James calls us to be doers of God's Word. He says that if we read the word of God and only hear, we are like someone who forgets their appearance in a mirror. We all do the personal double-check when we walk past a mirror. Imagine seeing something that needed to be fixed and doing nothing about it! James points out that this is exactly what we do with the Bible. We often read, hear, move on, and do nothing.

Sometimes we wait to obey until we absolutely have to do something. We don't follow God until we have no other options.

The motion of the Gospel-life is much different. As the truth that Jesus actually cares for us enough to die for us begins to root in our soul, we become a fountain of His radical love to the world. We care about people in a different way. We forgive. We react differently. We speak differently. We should. Do you?

Pray this with me today:

Father God, give me the courage to quickly obey your Word and your direction. AMEN.