Howard Stern v. Delilah: Being Well Done

So my kids, like most of us, are slow to get "please" and "thank you." Nearly every request that they make, we parrot back to them with a "please" and occasionally with an encouragement to change the tone ever-so-slightly, ie.:

Zoe, in her best "Howard-Stern, shock-d.j." voice: "I want juice right now!"
Me, in my best "Delilah, light music to make your day happy-d.j." voice: "May I please have juice, Daddy?"

This type of interaction is a regular refrain in our house. So when they do it right the first time, asking with pleases in their own Delilah-like voices, we celebrate it. As their parents, we always love them, but there is a particular delight in their obedience.

A year ago, I was sitting with a student who was at the end of a really hard year. Part of the difficulty of the year was that after much weeping and gnashing of teeth (and much prayer and discussion with close friends), he decided to not pursue a dating relationship with someone who was not a Christian.

As he talked about the heaviness of the year and particularly as he talked about the heaviness of his loneliness, I had a profound sense of two things: 1. the real pain and sorrow in his life that was not to be brushed over or taken lightly and 2. the delight that his Father had in him as His son, but especially in light of his costly obedience.

God delights in the obedience of his people. This is crucial for us to understand. We are always his children, our disobedience does not make us less his children any more than my own kids forgetfulness about please and thank you.

But there is a special joy, a particular delight in God in the obedience of the saints. We are called to be his and to walk with him. When we do that, when we actually follow Jesus even and especially when it costs us, the Father is overjoyed in and with us.

Obedience matters. Our good Father delights in the obedience of his people. He delights to pronounce his "Well Done!" over us.

This is not to negate God's attributes of forgiveness and grace. It is to recognize that forgiveness is not the only dynamic at work in our relationship with the Father and that part of the function of grace by the Holy Spirit is to empower us into obedience.

And the promise for us and for my lonely student is that as we obey and follow Jesus all of this must bless us. Even and especially when our obedience leads us into the desert-land of pain, sorrow, and/or loneliness, it must in the end be for our good, become part of our joy.

Jesus does this: his obedience leads him into the desert and then on to the cross. He experiences temptations, loneliness, pain, and death. And he gathers it all upon himself, plunges to the depths of hell with it all, and emerges victorious. And he obediently offers his own hard-fought victory to us as we are in him.

Christ's obedience matters. It delights the heart of the Father and makes all things new. So, too, does ours.