Freedom thru Obedience

I look back on my high school years with fondness. I had a great group of friends and we did a lot of different things together but there is one thing that I always laugh about when I look back on it. Among the three amigos that I was a part of in high school I was the one who played by the rules of my parents better than anyone else. But what was odd is though that may have been true I had more freedom than either Brandon or Danny. I will never forget the day that Brandon’s mom word for word said, ‘if Noah goes, you can go’ after Brandon asked if he could go to the drive in. But that was just one example the fact of the matter is my obedience to my parents or other authorities actually gave me more freedom then my friends. I didn’t have a curfew my parents always seemed to let me go to the drive in… haha, you get the idea.

I think that is what all parents really hope for with their kids really. That their kids will obey them when they are asked and ultimately they know that when they show they can do that then they can give the kids more freedoms. When a kid stops asking a parent to justify or explain their commands it shows them that their kids have reached a maturity to do things on their own, and freedoms are granted.

What if we made that realization with G-d. I mean deep down I think we all know that like our parents our G-d is looking out for our best, but more often then not we pull the same line as the little kid ‘why?’ Think of all those times kids have broken you down into the words, ‘because I said so, that’s why’. I think we are like that a lot. ‘Why do you want me to do that?’ What is the point of me doing that?’

What if we changed that. What if we simply acted obedience into anything that G-d asks even if we don’t see the point. What if similarly to the fiery furnace when those three men of G-d said “even if G-d doesn’t save us we won’t bow down’, we were to say ‘even if G-d doesn’t use this I will still obey Him’. It’s a tough challenge I know but I think that is the maturity G-d wants us to grow into.