Submission

My brother wrote the following on his blog. (Yeah, he has a good idea every now and then.)

I read a great chapter in a 1961 book entitled, "The Theology of the Christian Mission". The chapter was written by Johannes Blauw, who I'm pretty sure was a Dutch guy. With reference to God's rejection of Saul as Israel's king, he notes,

"The declaration of Samuel (15:23) is important: 'For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.' Saul did not refuse to serve God (verse 20), but he did refuse to serve God in the way that the prophet of God had showed to him. Serving God in your own way is serving God for your own purposes, and that is the same as the original sin".

As someone who has "served God" vocationally in full-time roles for about 20 years, I was sharply rebuked by these words. It's one thing to choose to serve God, but HOW we serve God is another thing entirely. I've always had my own ideas on how I would serve God and when circumstances messed with my ideas I would and still do become angry. Why have I thought that I get to choose how I will serve God? Would any of the OT prophets have chosen to become fools for God if they had any say in the matter? (poor Ezekiel)

In one of his books Eugene Peterson talks about how God often puts us in places for what it will do to, or, for us. God often puts us in difficult circumstances to shape us into who he wants us to be. When we rebel against that we lose the opportunity to grow.

I think I just lightened the burden of Mr. Blauw's warning but I think it is true nonetheless. It is sin AND it causes us to miss out on something.