The Third Outward Discipline – Submission

What does it mean to you to “deny yourself”?

Answering this question is what the Discipline of Submission is all about.  Over history, and perhaps in our own lives, we often think of self-denial as developing an attitude of self-hatred or feelings of unworthiness.  OR we experience the biblical injunctions to submission as a way to elevate ourselves above others.  (How abused is the passage about wives submitting to their husbands – when it’s really about teaching husbands to love their wives???)

Richard Foster encourages us to see the Discipline of Submission in a third way:  It is not about self-hatred and it is not about self-glorification.  The Discipline of Submission is “simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent on getting what we want.”

The Discipline of Submission teaches us that we have the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always getting our own way.  And in laying down that burden we are freed to become the people God intents us to be.

When I appeared before the Board of Ministry, they asked me questions about my willingness to go and serve whatever church I was appointed to.  I talked about how I have the opportunity to consult with my district superintendent (as do the churches) about what my gifts, needs – and wants – are.  But when a decision to stay or move is made, the Discipline of Submission allows me to give the authority to the bishop to appoint me to where he (or she) wants us to serve.   I have given up the burden of having to get my own way. 

The Discipline of Submission also has lessons for us when we are in positions of authority.    For example, Peter and Paul both taught that we should submit to the authority of the government, but when they were commanded to stop preaching about Jesus they refused.  “Revolutionary subordination commands us to live in submission to human authority until it becomes destructive.” 

Sometimes the limits of submission are easy to identify.  No wife should submit to an abusive husband.  Sometimes the limits of submission are hard to define.  What if a wife just doesn’t like her husband’s job?  Here is where a deep dependence on the Holy Spirit is needed.

We are commanded to live a life of submission, because Jesus did.  He denied himself – he gave himself over to God’s will – in how he lived and died.  He used his authority to point to God’s will not his own.   Think about this image – Jesus not only died a “cross-death” but he lived a “cross-life” and challenges us to as well. 

How can you live a “cross-life” in your relationship to God, to your family, to your neighbors and co-workers?  How can you live a “cross-life” in your relationship to others in the body of Christ, to those who are poor and marginalized?  How can you live a “cross-life” in your relationship with the world? 

How can you give up the terrible burden of always needing your own way?

 Peace,

Susan

Next…..Service

Drawn primarily from Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth as the outline for these devotions:  The Inward Disciplines of Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study;  The Outward Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service; and The Corporate Disciplines of Confession, Worship, Guidance and Celebration.