Wednesday, February 5

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You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.

—Psalm 119:4

Obedience isn’t one of those words that conjure up warm, fuzzy feelings for most of us. We prefer words like independence and freedom and individuality and trailblazing. In a country and an era where freedom has utmost value and we fiercely fight for our right to do our own thing, the idea of obedience can sound like emotional handcuffs.

We don’t want to be told what to do; we don’t like someone else calling the shots for our lives. And perhaps the reason for this internal opposition to the way of obedience is because deep down, we think we know best. We assume we understand ourselves and the situation better than anyone else; therefore, we should be the ones to make the rules.

But there must be a caveat to this line of thinking: What if there is someone who knows better than we do? What if there’s someone who understands us better than we understand ourselves, someone who has a better grasp of the big picture than we do, someone who knows the future we could never hope to predict?

One of the most heartbreaking parts of the demise of the Titanic is not just the tragedy of it but the senselessness of the tragedy. I’m sure you remember the story—if not from history class, then at least Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet’s version of it. The largest ship afloat at the time, the Titanic was said to be unsinkable. In 1907, the ship’s captain, Edward Smith, said he couldn’t “imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” It was that sense of overconfidence that prompted the Titanic to carry only enough lifeboats for about half the passengers and crew onboard.

The Titanic was traveling at nearly full speed when crew members received warnings from other ships that there were large icebergs in their direct path. But the Titanic didn’t even slow down. The crew assumed that the ship was so large it couldn’t be harmed by a little chunk of ice, and they figured that if there was an iceberg large enough to cause damage, surely they’d be able to see it from the lookout.

But we know how the story ends. Sure enough, the “unsinkable” ship collided with an iceberg, and 1,500 people perished when it went down.

Like the people who offered warnings to the Titanic’s crew, God knows more than we do. He can see all the lurking dangers that we can’t see from our vantage point. He also knows the future and can foresee the consequences of actions that are invisible to us from where we stand, rooted as we are in the present. And God is omniscient—all-knowing—so if he gives us a command, there is a good reason for it, whether we can see that from our lookout or not.

So ultimately, obedience isn’t so much a matter of independence; it’s a matter of vision. Will we trust our own limited ability to see, or will we trust an all-knowing God? When we accept that he is fully wise, we can fully obey.

And in the process, we’ll avoid some significant icebergs that would threaten to take us down.

What command in Scripture do you find most difficult to understand or obey? How would it help to know that God’s perspective on that issue is broader than yours?

—Stephanie Rische