Walking Together Through Costly Obedience
I walk with a friend every week through the woods. With eight children in tow, we trudge muddy paths, and my five children and her three either run loudly ahead or lag quietly behind. Our aim is to plod steadily, not lose any children, and enjoy adult conversation.
Months ago, my friend shared that she and her husband were praying for another baby. Their prayer sparked joy and excitement—and anxiety. They regularly felt overwhelmed and exhausted from parenting their three young children, one of whom struggles with complicated neurological challenges. There are many emotional needs, doctor/therapy appointments, regular parenting responsibilities, and household chores. And yet, they both still feel stirred to welcome another new life.
“Am I crazy? For wanting another baby when life is so chaotic?” she asked.
I paused. Then, I affirmed: “Motherhood is always challenging.” I agreed: “You’re right to consider desires, realities, and resources.” Then I asked: “What if God calls us to obedience even when we feel weak or unprepared?”
The past five years of my own life have taught me to default toward cheering and encouraging costly obedience. When I’m given the opportunity to strengthen and equip the saints who desire to follow the narrow path of discipleship, I feel prepared to convey the understandable fear and the expectation of God’s blessing. Costly obedience produces beautiful fruit for the kingdom, and in my own life, it has always been worth the cost.
Crazy Judgement
The Christian life is filled with opportunities to follow Jesus in small steps of obedience and sometimes in larger leaps that feel more costly. We who were once slaves to sin have become “obedient from the heart” and desire to serve (Rom. 6:17–18). We’re simply uncomfortable. Why are we tempted to ask questions like, Am I crazy? What fears lurk behind our questions? Are we nervous about our limitations? Anxious about the outcome? Hesitant to trust God?
Or, are we afraid others might think our obedience is crazy? I wonder if this was a fear that Noah, Abraham, Moses, or John the Baptist struggled with. When God calls us individually (or as a couple in marriage) to a step of faith, we can find confidence in our decision by considering how it aligns with his commands, how it might require faith and dependence on him, and how it has the potential to bring glory to Jesus. Then, we can confidently obey and trust God’s sovereign plan, even as he leads us down unexpected paths.
If people question our choices, we can think of the Apostle Paul, whose radical obedience had the same eye-raising effect on people. As he testifies to the gospel and the power of Christ, under the threat of imprisonment and death and is called foolish and crazy, he assures the court in Acts 26:25: “I am not out of my mind...but I am speaking true and rational words.” No matter how unconventional our choices may look, may our unwavering faith and radical obedience please God.
Costly Obedience
Radical obedience looks crazy because it’s costly. We can’t always predict what God might ask us to lay down. We must follow Jesus, knowing the path is rocky. Jesus warns his disciples in Luke 15:25–33, that “whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (v. 27). Discipleship means laying down treasures for the sake of following Jesus and trusting God to produce spiritual fruit and a harvest of righteousness. Paul lived this way, fearlessly and obediently:
I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:22–24, emphasis mine)
Without knowing the extent of suffering, Paul trusted God and fixed his heart on serving Christ. How might Christ call his people to stand firm in righteous obedience today? What should we be willing to lay down? Comfort? Control? Desire? While it is wise for Christians to seek counsel, knowledge, and discernment in decision-making, it is faithless to attempt to see around every corner or pre-emptively plan defense strategies as though God will leave us to fend for ourselves. We walk by faith one step at a time. Suffering is often the way God develops our confidence and trust and teaches us to taste his goodness in the land of the living.
Walk Together
Spring is in the air and months have passed since our initial conversation. My friend’s journey of obedience led to a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Now, she’s pregnant again, while grieving. She is both grateful to God for life and desperately aware of her need for his mercy. Life is chaotic, but she’s managing from the couch and riding out debilitating nausea.
Costly obedience has produced suffering and joy. It’s led her to depend on Christ’s ultimate act of sacrifice on the cross each time she worries she isn’t enough. And, as she shares “abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ [she shares] abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor. 1:5). Walking with my friend—through the literal and the figurative woods—has been a fresh reminder to me of the necessity, and the blessing, of costly obedience. Burden-bearers often enjoy fruit too.
Whether God is asking you to grow in your willingness to sacrificially obey him, or to help someone else walk obediently, pray and look for both of these kinds of opportunities in your own life.
Moms, flee the fear, comfort, and ambivalence that call you away from faithful sacrifice. Jesus desires to be Lord over your daily life, your marriage, your parenting, and where you serve, work, play, and rest. Where might he ask you to sacrifice or obey him today—despite the cost? Has he called you to pursue discipleship, to confess sin to a friend, or to join or serve within your church? Invite a Christian sister to join you on the road, to ask difficult questions, and to watch together as God turns your timidity into trust.
God will use even your uncertain steps to sanctify you and teach you to walk by faith. As you navigate the woods set before you, trust he is strengthening and comforting your heart, equipping you to walk obediently as a child of the light.
