“The virtue of obedience makes the will supple. It inspires the courage
with which to fulfill the most difficult tasks.” – Saint Ignatius
***
“Obedience,” says Martin Luther, “is the crown and honor of all virtue.” But what is obedience in the first place?
Let me illustrate. According to my research, Arabian horses undergo intense training in the deserts of the Middle East. Trainers demand total obedience from these horses and assess their training rigorously. The ultimate test is nearly beyond the limits of any living creature. The trainers withhold water from the horses for several days. Once released, the horses instinctively race towards the water source, but just as they reach the edge, poised to drink, the trainer blows a whistle.
The horses, having been thoroughly trained and instilled with perfect obedience, halt in their tracks. They turn around and return to the trainer, standing there in anticipation of water, yet they remain perfectly obedient. Once the trainer is confident in their compliance, he signals them to proceed to drink.
“Obedience is the gateway through which knowledge enters the mind,” Helen Keller once wrote. “The greatest thing is a life of obedience to the routine things of everyday life. No amount of fine feeling can take the place of faithful doing,” William Barclay said.
Roger Staubach, who guided the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in 1971, acknowledged that his role as a quarterback, where he did not have the authority to call his own plays, posed a significant challenge for him. His coach dictated every play, instructing him on when to pass and when to run, allowing him to alter the play only in critical situations (and he was expected to make the correct decision!). Although Roger regarded his coach as possessing a “genius mind” in football strategy, his pride led him to believe he should have the autonomy to lead his own team.
“I faced up to the issue of obedience,” Roger later said. “Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”
In the event that you remain uncertain about the concept of obedience, I am reminded of a particular anecdote. During his retreat from Greece following a significant military campaign, King Xerxes boarded a Phoenician vessel accompanied by several of his Persian soldiers. However, a violent storm arose, prompting the captain to inform Xerxes that survival was only possible if the ship’s cargo was significantly reduced.
The king then addressed his Persian companions on deck, stating, “Your actions determine my safety. I urge some of you to demonstrate your loyalty to your king.”
Several men bowed before Xerxes and willingly leaped overboard. With the ship’s weight diminished, it successfully reached the harbor. In gratitude, Xerxes commanded that a golden crown be awarded to the pilot for safeguarding the king’s life, only to subsequently order the pilot’s execution for the loss of numerous Persian lives.
“There are two kinds of men who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else,” says Cyrus H. Curtis. This statement comes to mind when I read the A Life in Our Times. In this autobiography, John Kenneth Galbraith tells the obedience of Emily Gloria Wilson, the family’s housekeeper:
It had been a wearying day, and Galbraith asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while he was taking a nap. Shortly thereafter, the phone rang. American President Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House.
“Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson,” the president told her. Emily responded, “He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him.”
The president was insistent. “Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him,” he said. Again, Emily denied his request: “No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.”
When Galbraith woke up, Emily told him what had happened. Immediately, he called the president back, who could scarcely control his pleasure. “Tell that woman I want her here in the White House,” the president said.
If you were Emily, would you do what she had done? “A great many of us must move from words to acts – from words of dissent to acts of disobedience,” reminded Barbara Deming. “Obedience alone gives the right to command,” pointed out Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Are you the kind of person who obeys your master or higher officials? Can he trust you to do the things he wants you to do? Now, read this anecdote which Charles Swindoll wrote in his book, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity:
“Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So, he says to you and the other trusted employees, ‘Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write to you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you on what you should do from now until I return from this trip.’ Everyone agrees.
“He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time, he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally, he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess – weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation, he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, ‘What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?’
“You say, ‘Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.” I think the president would then ask, ‘But what did you do about my instructions?’ And, no doubt the employees would respond, ‘Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!”
Acquiring knowledge and engaging in reading without practical application in one’s life is futile. This principle also applies to the Bible. Merely reading the Bible and contemplating its verses continuously, without implementing its teachings in your life, renders your learning ineffective.
