On Submission

All apologies for the lack of blogging in the last two weeks-- I've had some problems with the Blogger server (but it looks like it is going to let me today???) Instead of trying to back post for the last two weeks, I'm going to start where I should be in my Lenten journey.
On Submission:
One of my themes this week is Submission: the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. I hate to admit it, but my only-child-ness comes out much more than I would like for it to. As my husband points out, I've grown up getting my own way without really having to compromise. Foster says "THe real issue of submission is the spirit of consideration and respect we have for each other...In submission we are at least free to value other people. Their dreams and plans become important to us. We have entered into a new, wonderful, glorious freedom--the freedom to give up our own rights for the good of others. For the first time we can love people unconditionally."
He goes on to list the seven acts of submission:
1. To the Triune God--surrendering our body, mind, and spirit into the hands of God to do with us as he pleases through the long darkness.
2. TO the Scripture Yielding ourselves first to hear the Word, second to receive the Word, and third to obey the Word.
3. To our Family The mantra for the household should be "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but to the intersts of others." (Phi 2:4)
4. To our neighbors and those we meet in the course of our daily lives. If we find them in need, we help them through simple acts of neighborliness. (E.g. sharing food, babysitting once in a while. No task is too small, for each is an opportunity to live into the spirit of submissiveness.)
5. To the believing community, the body of Christ. If there are jobs to be done and tasks to be accomplished, we look at them closely and see if they are God's invitation to live in the spirit of submission to others.
6. To the broken and despised. Finding genuine ways to identify with the lonely, the downtrodden, and the rejected.
7. To the world. A determination on our part to live as a responsible member of an increasingly irresponsible world.

As I look at these, I can pick out which ones I'd especially like to do because they come the easiest to me. Yet I know that the ones that make me uncomfortable are the ones to which I am called to spend the greatest energy.

(If you are confused, I'd invite you to read Foster's chapter on Submission. Biblical submission is much different than what society has contorted it into.)