I live with a little rebel. She complains when she doesn’t get her way. She finds loopholes around the rules. She’s a poster child for asking forgiveness instead of asking permission.
One of my daughters spent LOTS of time in time out. Yes, she’s the one who said, “I’ll mess with Texas if I want to,” and “When I grow up, I’ll break all the rules.”
But today I’m not talking about my strong-willed child (who, by the way, grew into a caring, mostly responsible young adult, for all you parents still fighting the good fight).
The little rebel who irritates me most looks back at me in the bathroom mirror.

A quiet pond on Plum Prairie mirrors fall beauty.

I don’t choose the challenging assignment. I choose mindless pursuits instead of doing what only I can do. I try to avoid the homeless man sitting near my parking meter downtown. I put off reaching out to an old friend who is hurting.
I ignore the prompting and go my own way, reasoning myself out of action.
In “Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted,” Priscilla Shirer writes “…it is far easier to repent later than to initially submit. Obedience necessitates self-denial. Subjecting our will to the Lord’s is often more difficult than kneeling at an altar and asking for His mercy.”
When I go into rebellion mode, I’m often acting out of selfishness. But sometimes, I’m driven by fear. Fear of inadequacy. Fear of rejection.

Beauty comes in all sizes and many forms. Do you see it?

When I’m dragging my feet like a toddler, I need to remember one thing: choose love, not fear. The opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s fear, so said Dr. Caroline Leaf when she spoke at Northwood Church last month.
Love leads to the bigger life, the beautiful, the eternal.
Fear drags us into a narrow trap, the regretful life.
Again from Shirer, “Knowing the endless kindness of our God should not only catapult us to our knees to experience it but to our feet, to walk out a lifestyle of obedience that prioritizes submission to His will over all else.”
Where is God calling you to evict the rebel in the mirror and step out in faith?
Don’t think you have to say “yes” to everything, but focus on those places unique to you: your gifts, your roles and your season.
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”- 1 John 4:18