Obedience…The Word No One Likes… Hello to my weekend friends and readers. It’s beautiful up here in northern New Mexico. The crisp fresh air and being on a beautiful lake just takes away anxiety and other dumb thoughts we have. You look out there with the mountains surrounding you and all you can think of is to say “praise God!” for such a gift of beauty. And we get to see that every day for 6 months!

Sometimes I call our time up here a “promised-land” experience. Like any other day, I can have bad weather, bad phone conversations, bad cranky people—just bad stuff, period. But, when I look out on this beauty it changes me, even if just for a while. And then I want to ask God why can’t I feel this “promised-land-life” every day? God’s answer is not one I like or any of us like, but it’s what God wants—obedience, period! We’d like to say we’re doing our best, but for most of us we’d have to come clean and be honest with ourselves about obedience. We tend to remember the obedient times and ignore the not-so-obedient-times.

We all want a promised-land-life though, don’t we? There is a desire in our heart to feel the fullness of our “glory days” more often, but to have that we’ve got to obey God’s commands. I remember one of the times when I was a wedding planner and the subject of wedding vows—you know, love, honor, submit and obey almost tanked the wedding! The woman was fine with love but to submit, honor him and obey him? Not happening in her mind. It took some prayer, compassion and wisdom as we talked about those tough verses in Ephesians. When she realized that her husband had  to love her like “Jesus loved the church and died for it” she came around (and he gave a big sigh). To this day, they are still a happy couple with 3 kids and a basket full of grandchildren.

Like a wedding, I think couples expect something almost mystical, exotic and like “nothing before or after” could top their wedding. They bought into “promised-land” living but didn’t like the demands that came with it. Life doesn’t always give us messages from heaven, or angelic visions, diamond-studded wedding gowns, and constant mountain top experiences. If that’s what you are waiting for, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Obedience must be in all that we do every day because, in that obedience, we are giving our day to God to direct us with his wisdom which, as we all know, is a heck of a lot better than ours!

C.S Lewis once said “Obedience is the key to all doors” and then followed that up saying “don’t think for a second that you can heed the wrong voice, make the wrong choice and escape the consequences.” Ouch! If we could swallow our own pride and let go of our stubbornness, we would find that being obedient to God leads to waterfalls of goodness—for you, family, friends and, it continues for generations to come. We find those promises in Exodus 20:1-6. I’m using the Message it is so vivid in our “picture-brains” today:

“God spoke all these words: I am God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a life of slavery. No other gods, only me. No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.”

Some find these words harsh, but the God who loves us so much knew we would disobey so his warnings are for us that we may not stray from him. Think of it this way: as we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s precious and perfect favor. Is there anything else better than that? Nope, not on this earth for sure, AMEN.