Obedience

Today in chapel our Student Government president had a few great things to say but I really like how he talked about obedience. Obedience is something that has come up a few times in the last few days but also has been a matter I have been learning about.

Obedience. The obedience that a Christ follower should have should not be any mediocre form of obedience, we are called to have radical obedience. Radical obedience does not look normal to the eyes of the world, it may look foolish, or it may look like pure absurdity. I think though, that it is beautiful, it is exciting, it is invigorating. We are never called to live like this world, we are called to something more, something different. In my opinion, we are certainly not called to live the American dream. This has become animated in a few ways through my own life.

This year I was in the TESOL program at Briercrest. I thought this was where the Lord was calling me. It offered a mission aspect, the ability to teach others, the ability to support myself and the ability to travel. I also loved how integrated the Christian faith was into this program. Even though I was accepted and all else that entails, I always had a little bit of doubt in the back of my mind, but I pushed it away, ignoring it. I started taking my first TESOL class, and half way through the week -it was a modular class- I had large doubts that could not be ignored, doubts that made me want to cry. Sometimes though I would settle these doubts but would still feel not quite at peace. I wrestled with this for the majority of the week. So I talked to my program head and he suggested that maybe I needed something different, maybe a different program. This terrified me, I was registered for my classes already and had declared my major along with I had proudly told others which program I was in. I am also a person who is not impulsive and am pretty sensible, so this seemed to go against every ounce of will in my body. It all came down though to trust, trust in the Lord. He had put this restless heart in me about this program and He had different plans for me. So in that, I surrendered in obedience. I switched programs and the Lord brought together the classes I need to get into, etc. God is so good! He always knows what I need before I even glance a thought in that direction. I really enjoy the program I am in, and I have an incredible peace that has settled over me that surpasses my own understanding.

Obedience. God blesses us so greatly when we surrender and follow His will instead of our own. It may not be blessings that make sense in the world's point of view, but they are blessing nevertheless.