Josh, when you were a small boy, you sometimes put yourself in time-out by sitting on the stairs when you felt it was deserved. When I would discover you sitting there and beckon you to get up, you would respond politely, “Thank you,” and tumble off to play.
And Ryan, when you turned five, I observed, “Ryan, you have been so good lately.” You responded, “Well, Mom, the day I turned five, I thought, ‘I can either be bad or good’, and I have decided to be good.”
Obedience. Small tests when you are little become big tests when you are big. And you still have a choice.
Boys, this is the week you move into your college dorms. I listen again to the words Moses spoke to the children of Israel as he, too, said good-bye.
G, for Go. Go, because the Lord your God goes before you. (Deuteronomy 1:30)
R, for Remember. Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you. (Deuteronomy 8:2)
And now O, for Obey.
“If you act corruptly…by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God… the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.” (Deuteronomy 4:25-31)
I wonder if Moses’ gnarled hands shook and his aged voice trembled as he uttered these words, this foretelling of what he must have known would be.
How his children, the people of Israel, would go into the land and forget the Lord. How the consequences would be terrible, even more terrible than the punishment of forty years in the wilderness. How they would be scattered, and left few in number, and serve gods made by human hands.
But then I imagine his voice finding footing in the promises of a faithful Father who forgives. A God who is ready to be found by those who seek and search after him with all their heart.
A God who waits–a Father at the end of the road–for the prodigal to return and obey.
This God is merciful. He will not leave, or destroy, or forget.
Boys, obedience will be hard. But serving other gods—the work of human hands—is harder. It is harder to wander off and end up feeding pigs, while perishing from hunger yourself, then it is to stay and put your hand to the plow.
I pray for you to obey. Keep choosing what you know is right. Remember that—no matter what the world says—the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus comes to give you life abundantly.
And if, and when, you don’t—seek and search and return and obey until you are back again, living under the promises of a faithful Father.
(And in the meantime, thank your grandma for remembering and recording how you chose to obey as small boys, because sometimes moms forget.)
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