Selective obedience?

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.  –2 Chronicles 16:9a (NIV)
 
I have a dog. Well, my wife has a dog. She’s the animal lover. I’m more what you’d call an animal tolerator. Anyway, this dog LOVES to go on walks and it typically falls my lot to accompany her. Depending on the time of day and neighborhood traffic, I sometimes let her off leash for parts of the walk, specifically near vacant lots and wooded areas where she can “do her business” and I won’t have to pick it up. Once that’s done, I need her to come alongside again and likely go back on the leash.
 
This is where things get a little dicey. It isn’t that she’s a bad dog, just that her priorities don’t always align with mine. I’ll whistle, and she’ll likely head back in my general direction. Eventually. The path back is seldom direct or speedy. It requires a little meandering, some interesting smells to investigate, and a general obstinance that makes her stop a few yards away, usually in the direction we were going, and wait for me to catch up and re-attach the leash.
 
Did she do what I needed done? Technically yes, but she was bound to do it on her own terms. I call it selective obedience. And I think that’s what we often give God. We know the commandment. We know the intent behind the commandment. But the commandment doesn’t really fit in with our plans. It’s kind of inconvenient, kind of uncomfortable. So we kind of make some attempt to kind of meet what we imagine to be the minimum requirement, but we aren’t happy about it.
 
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!  –Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV)
 
But selective obedience isn’t really obeying. And there’s a difference in outcomes between the two. The more well-behaved my dog is, the more freedom she’s allowed. Too often, however, increased freedom leads to eroding compliance, to the point that I finally have to put her back completely on leash for a couple days to remind her of my expectations. Similarly, if I view obeying God as coerced duty rather than willing submission, I forfeit the joy and reward true obedience would have yielded, and may open myself up to divine discipline.
 
So what is needed for true obedience? I think it requires a combination of humility and trust. They’re related, but they aren’t the same and deciding which precedes the other is a bit of a chicken and egg question. If I’m humble, I’ll look for reasons to trust. And if I trust, I’ll see reasons to be humble.
 
Humility recognizes the greatness of the one in authority. It believes the one giving orders is both smart enough to know what he’s doing and powerful enough to enforce his will. The opposite of humility would be arrogance, which assumes I’m the smartest guy in the room and I don’t have to do what you say.
 
Trust recognizes the goodness of the one in authority. It believes the one giving orders has the best interests of his followers at heart and is powerful enough to guarantee the outcomes he committed to. The opposite of trust would be fear, which is suspicious of motives and doesn’t think you can deliver the goods.
 
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  –Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV)
 
Jesus entrusted Himself to the will of the Father in an act of supreme humility and was glorified as a result. Our stakes aren’t as high as His were, but that’s the model…. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go walk the dog.