Mommy Lesson 30 - Obedience with Reckless Abandon

Obedience is a big deal in our house and most of the time my kids are really good at obeying us. Daddy Reg and I believe that if we train them how to obey then they will know how when they need to. Just like if you train for what to do during a fire, then if you are in a fire you know what to do. And if they can obey us, then it will be easier for them to obey other authority figures in life. One thing we do to train them is periodically tell them to do random tasks that do not have anything to do with what is going on at the moment. Their job is to do what was asked no matter how irrelevant without question.
As I have trained my kids throughout the years, God has been faithful to show me how He trains me in the same way. He wants me to obey with reckless abandon even the craziest of commands. There are so many examples in the Bible about obedience with reckless abandon just like God wants us to obey.
God told the Israelites to not worry about food while in the dessert because He would rain food from heaven. Think about that one from their perspective. Really, food falling out of the sky? Those who did as they were told, did not go hungry, but it really is a crazy thought
Noah was told to build a giant boat that was bigger than anything anyone had ever built and he built it. I am sure Noah was a tad confused about the boat’s purpose as it took him forever to build but he still built it in the midst of all the mockery.
Abraham was told to take his son up a mountain and sacrifice him. Abraham’s reckless abandon to God is not lost on me. God’s command seems so crazy insane and yet Abraham did it without question knowing that God knew what he was doing. Abraham was blessed beyond measure out of his obedience.
Joshua was told to walk in circles around a city and then blow trumpets and the walls would fall down and they would conquer the city. Joshua obeyed with reckless abandon and the walls came falling down and they took the city.
One of my favorite examples is when Jesus spit in some dirt, put the mud he made in the blind guy’s eyes and told him to go wash it off at a certain pool. The guy went to the pool Jesus told him to go to and washed it out there. He didn’t immediately wipe his face like most people would. He obeyed without question and because of his obedience, he got his sight.
Obedience with reckless abandon, no questions asked, is a big deal in the Bible. God wants us to have that kind of reckless abandon. God is constantly showing me how to obey just by trusting Him. Obedience takes trust, it really does. It also takes faith, which is very similar to trust - but not the same thing. Obedience is not on the condition of knowing why, it is to be on the condition of trusting that God (or the person in authority) knows what He is doing.

I am learning a lesson in obedience. I know I have just scratched the very top layer of the surface on obedience. The Bible is so full of examples. The greatest example of all, Christ was obedient to the cross. If he didn't obey, I would be facing certain eternal death and so would every person who has ever walked the face of this earth.

Disclaimer: This post is inspired by a post I wrote in 2007 but is really relevant to me today too.