In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. John 1:5 (NIV)

Part 5 – Obedience vs Performance

Go to  PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4

The sacrifice of obedience is a hard one. I struggle to write about it because it has the potential to sound two-dimensional; too black and white. Cut and dry. The more I learn to live from a position of grace than from a place of performance and perfection, I'm discovering that there is this weird fluidity to obedience. It's not rigid and stubborn like I used to think.

We tend to get caught up on obedience as being the absence of sin and mistakes – the position of perfection. Living up to a standard set by another. Pure, clean, white. And although we might like the idea of always making the right choice, always doing the right thing and being perfection personified, it's just not humanly possible. We all sin, we all fall short, we all make mistakes, we all get it wrong. And that is OK. Obedience has a deeper layer than ticking boxes on a performance checklist.

Without sounding clichéd or sappy, obedience is a journey. Not a journey of perfection but of authenticity…

Here’s something interesting: The word obedience in ancient Hebrew is the combination of two words. Akoúo, “to hear” and hypó “beneath”. It creates the word hupakoé (obedience) and literally means, “submission to what is heard.”

What do you hear from God? Are you hearing a narrative that says “do this and do that?” Or do you hear him saying something deeper? When God called the world into being with his words, all of creation came underneath what it heard… “Let there be light” and there was light. John writes,

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1)

If we think that obedience has to do with a list of regulations, remember that Jesus said obedience to the law comes down to these things: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and… Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Obedience is about living a life of love. And it starts with us understanding that we are loved and are worthy of love. Brené Brown says,

“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection. Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.”

When you live to please people, which is often referred to as ‘performance-based living', you are still sacrificing something. When you hide your heart from others and put on a show of sacrifice, a performance of culture, an act of success; when you talk it up, wear a mask, keep your heart hidden, pretend you're something other than what you are, you are sacrificing the one thing you must never ever sacrifice:

Your true self. Created by God for love and to love.

Obedience is hearing what God says about you and aligning your life with his declaration of love, light and life.

Go to Part 6 – Enough is Enough

[vcex_image_grid columns=”3″ pagination=”false” thumbnail_link=”custom_link” link_title_tag=”true” custom_links_target=”_blank” overlay_style=”title-category-visible” columns_gap=”5″ img_hover_style=”fade-out” image_ids=”20934,20935,20937″ custom_links=”https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1239768002?pt=118656308&ct=blog%20footer&mt=8,https://www.pktfuel.com/dailyemail,https://www.pktfuel.com/support” img_height=”350″]