A Primer on Obedience

I recently purchased the second album released by The Priests, and one of the songs in the collection was a hymn that I had never heard before, entitled King of Kings.  It has quickly become one of my favorites, not only because they perform such a beautiful rendition of it, but because the lyrics are such a powerful prayer of surrender. The third verse is particularly striking:

My life I yield to thy decree,
and bow to thy control
in peaceful calm, for from thine arm
no power can wrest my soul.
Could earthly omens e'er appall
a man that heeds the heavenly call?

This prayer of powerful surrender has inspired me to begin a series of reflections on exactly what we owe God and what the implications of our surrender are.  After all, in the end, all of our toils in life, all of our grand questions about the meaning of things--and the meaning of life and death itself--boil down to one thing: obedience.  Do I strive to be obedient to Christ in all that I do, and in all that I am, without excuses?  Whose will do I ultimately live to serve, his or mine?

Stop and think about it for a minute.  He--God--gave everything to save me and the entire human race from eternal damnation.  He, the very Word that was spoken and brought the universe into existence from nothing, stepped down from his throne to take on our human flesh, with all its weaknesses, temptations, sorrows, and pain.  Not only that, but he surrendered himself to be unjustly condemned to die a horrible death, all so that we might be reunited with the Father in Him.  He did all that for us, for me. What am I willing to give him in return?

Anything less than everything is not enough.