Do you obey or just sacrifice?

The prophet Samuel spoke God’s truth in 1 Samuel 15:22 when he told King Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” I’ve often wondered about these two: obedience and sacrifice. Why is one better than the other? Aren’t they both good? What makes obedience superior?

This is the same dilemma that C.S. Lewis presents at the beginning of his sermon, “The Weight of Glory.” When contemplating the highest virtue held by Christians of old and his contemporaries, he decides that “Love” had been replaced by “Unselfishness.” “You see what has happened?” he quips. “A negative term has been substituted for a positive.” Unselfishness suggests going without, “as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.”

This is also true of obedience and sacrifice. Sacrifice suggests giving something up. The focus is on the giver. The focus of obedience is on the receiver. When we are obedient to God, our actions spotlight His will. When we sacrifice, our actions spotlight our own actions.

But didn’t Jesus sacrifice himself on the cross? Wasn’t that his greatest act for our greatest good? Yes, but I would argue that it was done out of obedience. Paul tells us that Jesus, despite being “in very nature God . . . humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6,8). Even Jesus, as he prayed in the garden, highlighted his obedience to his Father when he said, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). The focus was on his obedience to the Father. Jesus laid down his life in obedience.

Obedience is done out of a heart that wants to honor. This is exactly where Saul went wrong in 1 Samuel. The LORD had instructed Saul and the Israelites to totally destroy the Amalekites. Nothing was to be spared, not even their animals. But Saul did not do as the LORD instructed. He spared their king and the best of their cattle. When Samuel questioned Saul about not following directions, Saul told Samuel, “The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:21). Samuel responded with a question, an answer, and an analogy: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry” (v.22).

Listen. God wants our hearts, not some outward sacrifice. Saul did some extravagant sacrifice that looked good from the outside, but in reality, it was total disobedience. His Freudian slip of the tongue when he said, “to sacrifice them to the LORD your God,” was a clear indication of what was wrong: Saul did not see the LORD as his God. The LORD was Samuel’s God. His heart was not for the LORD.

I’m sitting here wondering where I make the same mistake. Do I obey because I know the LORD is my God? Where do I give some half-hearted obedience? Where do I sacrifice instead of obey? I imagine that it is more often than I choose to admit. A little sacrifice of time because I feel obligated. A little sacrifice of money so I’ll look good. The sacrifice trap is easy to trip, and the worst part is that it makes you think that you’ve really done something good and important. It may look as if you’ve done it for God though you haven’t. But God knows the difference, and if Samuel were looking us in the face, he would call our hands on it, just the way he did to Saul. “To obey is better than sacrifice,” he would say. God wants our whole hearts. He wants our Love, not our Unselfishness, for with our hearts, with our love, we will give the sacrifice and be unselfish for the right reasons. We will do it for Him. Then all the praise and honor and glory will be His, just the way it should be.

Dear Lord, Help me to “rend my heart not my garments” to You. Help me to want You and not to just do things that look good. Help me to obey because I love You and want to honor You. Let this be from the inside out, for only then I will get it right. You are so worthy to be honored and glorified. Praise You! Thank You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Are You Still Enough?

Our emotional well-being depends on our ability and willingness to do this: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Let me explain. I have been teaching for 26 years now. Students have changed over the years, as you can imagine. What has not changed is that schools still reflect the larger community around them. If there is homelessness in a community, the school will no doubt have students that are homeless. If there is drug abuse or crime rampant in a community, it will show up in the schools. Single parent households, parents working multiple jobs, porn addiction, teen pregnancy, “my child never does anything wrong” syndrome – all of these make up the dynamics of a school.

Recently I’ve noticed a new problem. Anxiety, depression, and suicidal tendencies are on the rise everywhere, and this means in schools as well. I’ve done a lot of reading to try and understand what has changed in our young people today, and how I can help them. I’ve found that researchers in psychology have noted the steep increases in these issues as well, and many of them have theories about the cause. They are attributing the increase largely to the ubiquitous use of technology. We now have a generation of young people who have screens available at all times. Got a down moment? Pick up your phone. Walking somewhere? Pick up your phone. Want some music while you work? Pick up your phone. The brain is never allowed to be bored. We have a phone for that. All of this phone use leads to solitude deprivation - the lack of down time necessary for you to function properly both mentally and emotionally. The activities available on your mobile devices are different than filling your time with a book to read or TV to watch because a person doesn’t bring a book or TV with them everywhere they go. Standing in the Walmart line, your brain has some down time – unless you pick up your phone.

Solitude deprivation is a problem. Like a computer that runs faster and more efficiently after performing a defrag program, our brains run better after down time. Today, however, people don’t let their brains defrag. They fill every bored moment with technology. And like canaries in the coal mine, this generation is warning us that too much screen time is lethal to our psyche. It is causing massive amounts of anxiety and depression, especially in our young people. We think the screen is keeping them quiet in the Walmart buggy while we shop or in the car while we drive, but really, it is setting them up for an addictive, anxious future. Trust me! I understand the lure of a quiet kid. But is it worth trading that momentary frustration for the habit of reaching for a screen – a habit that will later lead to the downfall of your child’s social and mental well-being? Or is it better to let your child be present in the moment, experience the world around them, and let them build healthy strategies for dealing with boredom? These are the times I used to sing with my children or play I Spy. Do we not want to interact with our own children anymore? They will be missing out on all kinds of learning opportunities if we do not. What will they be learning, if we hand them a screen? To disengage with the world around them instead of seeing the opportunities it offers, or learning how to interact with the world in real-time.

I was processing all of these ideas in my solitude as I picked up sticks in my front yard after a spring wind storm. Psalm 46:10 kept popping into my mind: “Be still and know that I am God.” The idea of being still before the Lord kept my thoughts running, especially after all of this new information I held about down time and solitude deprivation. I love that the Lord knows us so well. Our emotional well-being depends on our ability and willingness to be still. Science tells us this, but God tells more: “Think about Me,” He says. “Be still and know that I am God.”

Ironically, the Hebrew word for “still” in this verse is “rapha,” which means “let go, be weak, be healed, release." It is the same word used in Isaiah 53:5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (rapha – healed, stitched together, mended).” We are both spiritually and emotionally stitched and mended together by our savior, Jesus Christ.

The canaries in the cage of ubiquitous technology are warning us. Too much technology is not good. We have reached the point of diminishing returns. We are a people in crisis. It is time to take action. Put away the screens. Take a walk. Write things down. Go bike riding with our kids. Clean house or do yard work without music or earbuds. We must teach our kids to do this too. We must help them navigate the dangers of too much screen time. We must help them make time to think about the LORD. Scripture repeatedly tells us to look to Him, consider Him. God wants to heal our hearts and our minds, but if we are so busy inputting other information, we will never reap the benefits of being still and knowing He is God. We are in danger if we do not. But if we do, our stillness and reflection on the Lord will set us apart. And I imagine that in our stillness we will be able to look back over our lives and know that He is indeed God . . . and we will worship Him.

Dear Lord, forgive me for often times being too busy to stop for You. Forgive me for not teaching my children to do the same. Help me to be still and focus on You. Help me to be intentional about how I use my time and my technology. I want to worship You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Things you can read:
Lexicon on rapha: https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Meditations/Be_Still/be_still.html
Them by Ben Sasse
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch
12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke