A CLOSE CALL: A LESSONS IN OBEDIENCE

I still remember earlier last year, it was when I started to show interest in holding Bible studies, but I was not baptized yet. It was myself and the gang; we decided to go buy takeaways for dinner around the township, where we went to buy food; next to it, there was a pub.

The gang decided that we must get a few drinks after the dinner meal since we were experiencing load shedding at that moment. There was this inner voice suggesting that I shouldn't go to the pub, but I decided to disobey it and followed the gang. We bought drinks and settled; while we were still enjoying ourselves, it happened that I was only left with one of the guys, and he had a disability; he was unable to speak, he was mute.

While I was with him, he took out a cigarette since he was a smoker and started smoking. Two random boys came towards us and asked to smoke with him, and he was willing to share it with them until they refused to return his cigarette and started saying, "What are you going to do to us while you can't even speak?" Those words got to me, and I tried to snap the cigarette off, and then they started pushing me towards the wall, but I managed to get their hands off my throat since they were two of them, and I didn't know what happened to the whole gang I came with, even the one I was trying to stand up for was nowhere to be seen.

Until a random masculine person came through and broke up the fight, and he also held me against the wall, telling me to remain still since I was ready for war; he kept on holding me against the wall until I was calm. The two boys who were against me went outside the pub and called me to come out to fight them; I decided not to go out, even though I wanted to. The masculine guy went out, but after a few minutes, he came back inside the pub, and he was stitched because he had blood coming out from his head, and you could hardly see his face.

That inner voice I heard in the beginning came back, and it said, "That was supposed to be you, and you wouldn't have survived those injuries." I stopped for a while; I felt like I was in my own world while people were enjoying themselves, and I looked at the masculine guy, and he looked back at me, then he just gave me a thumbs-up. After that, I just left and went straight home.

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." (Galatians 6:7-8 NKJV)

As I reflected on that incident, I realized that everything happens for a reason, but not all of those reasons are God's will. Just because He came through for me doesn't mean that what I did was right. 

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV)

God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Sometimes, we experience God's grace and mercy despite our disobedience, but that doesn't mean we're excused from the consequences of our actions. 

"The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made." (Psalm 145:9 NIV)

However, this doesn't give us a license to sin. 

"Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!" (Romans 6:15 NKJV)

I learned that day that obedience is better than sacrifice. 

"To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22 NKJV) 

If I had obeyed that inner voice, I wouldn't have put myself and others in harm's way. Let this be a lesson to me and to all who will listen: obedience is key to avoiding unnecessary harm and living a life that honors God.

Reflection Questions:

WHAT ARE SOME CONSEQUENCES OF DISOBEDIENCE YOU'VE EXPERIENCED IN YOUR LIFE? WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THOSE EXPERIENCES? 

May God help us to obey His voice and follow His will for our lives.