Obeying is Easier

I started the blog you are reading one month ago today. It began in Philadelphia one night when I decided to put to digital paper what I learn from my travels. Whether I’m sitting in a hotel watching the sun set across old Quebec City, soaring at 35,000 feat in turbulent air or simply driving my car home from a soccer practice, the lessons keep coming.

The lessons keep coming #fromwhereIsit. 

For the past two years our oldest son has enjoyed playing in the local youth soccer club. Recently, he was selected to play on the U9 Elite Travel Team for the 2015-2016 season. After a bit of debate and prayer, we happily enrolled him. Now, I won’t be the only frequent traveler in the family.

Following one of the final games of the spring season, we walked to the car with him as proud parents, but became increasingly frustrated with each step. His behavior reflected a complete lack of obedience. As we traveled home that day, I remarked, “You know bud, I don’t get it. Obedience is so much easier than playing soccer. It’s easier than playing goalie, and it’s even easier than scoring a goal. So why can’t you simply obey?”

And there it was.

How is it that we excel in our careers and sports, but we have such trouble obeying our leaders and our God? I believe the answer lies in our values. I’m not strictly speaking in regards to ethics, morals or life-laws, rather on what we place value. In the case of my son, he sometimes values the coach’s instruction on how to dribble more than my instruction on how to avoid smacking his head on the coffee table. I am no different that a six-year-old.

As a practical example, please answer the following questions:

1. Do you text while driving?
2. Do you drive faster than the posted speed limit?
3. Do you drive through red lights without stopping?
4. Do you intentionally rear end others who are driving too slowly? (I know you at least visualize doing this.)

You get the point. You may have answered “no” to a question or two, but most likely, you answered “yes” to one of them. Fortunately, each scenario is illegal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We place different values on the laws we believe we should obey than the ones that don’t hold our interest. We perceive some actions to be more dangerous than others.

This is no different in work where we may place the more value on the dress code than the gossip policy. At home we may obey the homeowner’s association garbage collection times more than our commitment to be home by 5:00 PM (speaking from experience). And in our faith, we can easily defend our disobedience to God based on whether or not others are getting hurt in the process. In summation, we are only thinking of ourselves. We have completely forgotten about the leaders who have created an ideal workplace in part by setting up guidelines for our benefit. We lose sight of the spouse who’s waiting for the garbage to go curbside and focus solely on the task at hand. We place God on our own scales of justice, weighing our wrongs against His rights, forgetting that He created the scales and loves us more than anything we could pile on, good or bad.

Obedience is an expression of love and respect. I’m suggesting that we give a bit more energy and focus to why we should obey and not how a leader might make us feel oppressed. Let’s put focus back on who we are following and why we started following to begin with- love and respect. And then, go score a goal!

I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comment below as to why you find it easy or difficult to obey certain people or guidelines.