Rebellion

So last night was the latest installment of ‘Living Free’. One of the things we talked about was REBELLION.

Now I have always been a bit of a rebel. I naturally go against the grain. If someone says I can’t do something it’s like a red rag and I go all out to prove them wrong. I am noy good at submitting to authority if I don’t agree with it.
That is changing, it’s true, as I go along this jounrey I am being less of a rebel. But a few things came up last night that were interesting…

…For rebellion, is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatory… (1Samuel 15:23)

So that implies that rebellion is as bad as a form of witchcraft. Oh boy, I am in trouble… 😉

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as sureme authority, or to govenors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. (1 Peter 2:13-14)

Sumission as our vicar says, is not ‘cool’ in todays society. We pride ouselves on being strong, individuals, making our own way in life. We teach our chidlren to question almost everything, we don’t believe the things we read in the midea (thankfully…), we question scientific evidence. So to actually sumbit to those in authority – well that is not easy.
So is all rebellion wrong? Obviously any authority that tells us to do something against Gods laws would be wrong but what about daily life stuff? Is it ok to sometimes be a rebel? or never? I struggle with going along with stuff I don’t agree with. Nicky Gumbel in his Alpha book gives a great example of submission – he talks about Sandy Millar who was the Vicar of HTB. When Sandy was the curate, although he often disagreed with the vicar, he always submitted to his authority, let him make the decisions. Mostly people thought that Sandy completely agreed with the Vicar. But when the vicar left, Sandy took over and he changed everything! So he had quietly bided his time, submitted to his ‘boss’ and when the time came and he had the authority he then exercised it. Perhapos we should all be a bit more like that?