Editorial August 28, 1995 Issue

Take your orders from God!

Mary Metzner Trammell

"I Don't know what it is about me," a friend of mine said recently, "but I always seem to rebel against authority. If somebody tells me I have to do something, then I automatically say to myself, 'WHOA!! Why do I have to do that? What gives this person the right to boss me around?' " And no matter how many reasons you give my friend for doing the thing she's been asked to do, she still feels like arguing the point. On the outside, she may manage a smile, but on the inside she's often grinding her teeth.

Actually, my friend says her resistance toward authority has made her miserable over the years. It has put her at odds with her supervisors. And from time to time, it has even put her at odds with the One who's most important in her life: God. So she's been praying about this I-don't-want-to-do-what-I'm-told-to syndrome. And she's been learning from her prayers. Learning about real authority, real obedience ... and, oddly enough, real love.

What's the connection between obedience and love? Well, most of us obey best when we love or respect something about what we're conforming to. For instance, you and I may not just naturally love obeying the laws that say we have to pay taxes. But we go ahead and pay those taxes anyway. Partly, of course, because we don't want to be penalized. But isn't there also some underlying love in our motives too? Love, maybe, for the community or country that's levying the taxes? Or love for our family or friends, who might suffer hardship if we default on our responsibility?

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