OH-beeey!

Have you been to any weddings lately? Have you heard any brides promising to obey their grooms? Whenever Scott is looking for one more doughnut than he really needs, if I try to head him off on his way to the kitchen, he will remind me, as his wife it is my duty to OH-beeey. In truth, I can't even tell you if I promised him that, but I did promise God. God gave us to one another, and if there's anything I've learned, it's that I am responsible to Him for the part I play in relationship to those He places in my life. Scripture clearly says my husband is responsible for me and that I am to submit to him. He is to love me as Christ loves the Church, and I am to follow his leadership as the Church obeys Christ. If my husband is loving me appropriately, he will not lead me into paths of unrighteousness or harm me in any way unnecessarily. If I am humbly deferring to my husband on issues in which we have disagreement (like just how many doughnuts he can eat in one sitting), I am deferring to my Lord, obeying the God who has joined us together. As a friend expressed to me with regard to obeying her husband: I may not trust him, but I trust God. 

But obedience can be hard, and I'm not just talking about obeying a husband or a boss or some other authority figure. Obeying God can be difficult. Think about the police officer who hands you a ticket for doing thirty-five in a twenty-five. Slow down, he says as he sticks that offensive scarlet letter through the opening in your window. But you've done it and you've suffered the consequences. You drive slowly away, turn signal and full stop at the next four intersections. But God? Commandment #1: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Sunday morning is a torrential downpour and it's much more appealing to stay warm and dry inside, so you do. Monday's quiet time is pre-empted by that stack of laundry waiting to be done. Tuesday night Bible study is "cancelled" on account of a rough day at work. Wednesday Zoom prayer meeting loses out to distractions. Talking to myself on that one. One god after another competes against the God of the Universe for our attention, our confession, our worship, our time, our trust, our obedience. Time and time again we disobey. And when the ticket doesn't come, when Johnny Highboots isn't peering through our window from behind mirrored Aviators, we continue to disobey. It might help if you'd been around the block once or twice; you'd know where the officer sits. I mean, maybe not all the time, but if you had some idea that sooner or later someone would be watching, you'd know just how much you could get away with before you took your foot off the accelerator. We can feel that way about obeying God as well. But just because God's not zapping us the second we step out of line, just because God sees us through the blood of Jesus, doesn't mean we have license to just keep on disobeying. 

Back to my husband. He's not the type to be pushed around, and God knows I need someone like that in my life. If he were to simply acquiesce each time we disagreed, I'd get away with murder. Scott is tough, he knows what he wants, but he can't push me too hard either. Too much heavy-handedness or too much liberty, and our marriage would be a mess; he has to approach me with the love and mercy that Christ has for His Church, and I have to meet him with the respect and submission the Church has for our King. That's where love and commitment --relationship --come in. In the early days of our relationship, Scott didn't demand that I obey him. I certainly didn't desire to do so. We were coworkers, then friends, then significant others, then spouses. Our love for one another grew, and  out of that, a desire to be more committed to one another. Our relationship progressed, and out of that a desire to be more accountable to one another --and to God, with regard to the ways we relate to one another. I demonstrate my respect for Scott by obeying him. He demonstrates his care for me by being tender in his requests, asking things of me that will benefit both of us, loving me as Christ loves the Church.

Whether we agree or disagree, whether we like it or we don't, whether the consequences of disobedience are immediately evident or not, obedience is one of those ways we can give God the best of ourselves, we can properly worship, we can give Him what He is due.