Heart Deep

 My husband and I had only been married a couple of years when I had the bright idea that we needed to get a dog. It did not matter that, at the time, neither one of us were really animal people. I just thought getting a dog was a great idea and somehow, through my persuasion, my husband agreed.Shortly after my conversation with Eugene, someone told me of a family who was giving away Labrador mix puppies. Perfect! Most certainly this was the perfect timing of God! :)I went alone to see these puppies and to pick one out. Eugene wholeheartedly trusted me to pick out just the right one. Once I got there and saw so many cute, precious, adorable puppies, I made the executive decision that we not only needed one puppy but TWO! By having two puppies, they could keep each other company, play together, frolic together and snuggle together… just like the tv commercials!I just knew Eugene would be as thrilled as I was at my brilliant idea of two puppies! Now mind you, I never had a dog growing up… had no idea just how big Labrador’s grew up to be… did not have a clue as to what it was going to take to care for these adorable little things… had not pre-thought out the time, energy and effort that these puppies were going to take from our already busy ministry lives. None of these things seemed to occur to me! I was coming home with two precious baby puppies.Oh, and did I forget to tell you that the owners of the puppies made sure to tell me that this FREE gift was a “no return” policy? They DID NOT want the puppies back, even if we changed our minds later.  “Of course!” I assured them, “we would never want to bring them back because we are so excited to bring them into our new little family!”I won’t go into detail about the “strong” discussion that ensued once I unloaded the two puppies from my car at our house. I’ll just tell you that Eugene did not share my same enthusiasm for getting the two puppies instead of one.  And once he saw what breed of puppies they were, and him knowing FAR more about dogs than I did and understanding just HOW BIG they were going to get, even his agreement to get just one dog was beginning to wane…very quickly. AND once I told him about the “no return” policy… let’s just say that fireworks began to go off… and it wasn’t of the romantic kind! :)So here we were. Two puppies. One brown and one black. The brown one we named Moses and the black one Elijah (bless our little-newlywed hearts). We kept them in our backyard because our house was so tiny (ANOTHER detail that had slipped my mind in my delirium of getting two dogs) and it was just a matter of a couple of months before our once nice, manicured backyard had turned into what looked like a war zone.No grass. Holes big enough to lose an entire human should they should fall in. Fencing chewed up to kingdom come. “Waste” covering every square inch of our yard. An air conditioning unit that looked like a bomb had hit it. And on and on and on the list went of the total demolition of our yard!These dogs were so bad that we decided (again, MY genius idea!) to enroll them in obedience school. After two classes and vomiting to and from school in our tiny car (the size of our automobile was yet ANOTHER minor detail that I had overlooked when picking up these two precious puppies), the instructor of the obedience school (I PROMISE YOU I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!) kindly, but firmly, asked us to never return to class with these dogs again. WE HAD BEEN KICKED OUT OF OBEDIENCE SCHOOL!!!!!To say that Eugene was at the end of his rope with me and the dogs would be a drastic understatement! And after several more months of ongoing drama with these dogs, we eventually, for the good of the dogs and the saving of our marriage, found a good home for Moses and Elijah.Why in the world am I telling you this?!These two dogs taught both Eugene and I a valuable lesson on OBEDIENCE. Moses was the most obedient dog of the two. His sad little eyes would look at us as we were trying to get him to obey our commands, and he would lovingly obey us.  Moses loved us and wanted to please us, and thus obedience became a way he showed his love to us.Elijah, on the other hand, was a totally different story.  He was very strong-willed and no amount of coaxing or treats could get him to obey.  But eventually, after a considerable amount of time, he would eventually obey us simply because he wanted to avoid the consequences of disobedience.A few years after our dog fiasco, when we became parents (and how God even saw fit to entrust us with little human beings after all of this, is still beyond me!), we learned that children were much the same way.  And years after that learned that teenagers are even more similar to our precious Moses and Elijah, more so than we could have ever imagined! :) Some children or teens obey their parents simply out of love for them. Other children or teens obey because they want to avoid the consequences of their disobedience.And after years of ministry, we’ve seen how the same is also true of Christians. Some obey out of love. Others obey out of the desire to avoid the consequences.There’s a verse in Romans that speaks to the differences in our obedience.

In Romans 6:17 (TPT), it says: “And God is pleased with you… for your obedience that is HEART DEEP…”

HEART DEEP obedience is very different from just obedience. Surface deep or reluctant obedience is obeying God because you know you should and do not want to suffer the consequences of disobedience.Heart-deep obedience is submitted obedience. Not only do you want to obey but your heart is submitted to God and loves Him so much that your greatest desire is to obey and please Him.Surface obedience looks first to see what other people will think about us if we obey in a certain way or situation. Heart-deep obedience obeys God regardless of what other people will think. Surface obedience will obey if it doesn’t cost us too much. Heart-deep obedience will obey regardless of the cost.Surface obedience happens only if it benefits us, is convenient for us, is the right time for us, and doesn’t cost us too much from our lives. Heart-deep obedience only happens out of a heart DEEPLY in love with God and DEEPLY submitted to His purposes and plans for us… and often times, it will cost us everything.Two different dogs: two different ways of obedience.Two different children: two different hearts of obedience.Two different Christians: two different motives of obedience.I don’t know about you… but I have committed my life to HEART DEEP obedience. Obedience out of my DEEP love for God, and my DEEP commitment to fulfilling His purposes in my life, and my DEEP desire to please the One who loves and knows me the most.HEART. DEEP.How about you?  Which obedience will you choose?