{"id":2577,"date":"2020-10-05T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2577"},"modified":"2020-09-30T20:49:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T02:49:37","slug":"what-prevents-obedience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=2577","title":{"rendered":"What prevents obedience?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently read the Good Samaritan story during my morning time with God (Luke 10.25 – 37<\/a>), and I recalled the modern-day experiment retold in Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s Tipping Point<\/a>. Here\u2019s part of a summary by another blogger:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the experiment, seminary students were each asked to prepare a short talk on a biblical theme and then walk over to another building on campus to present it to a group of undergrads.\u00a0 In between the two buildings,<\/em> the researchers placed an actor dressed as a derelict, slumped down in an alley, coughing and groaning.\u00a0They then watched to see if the seminary students would stop and help the man or not on the way to giving their theological presentations…It didn\u2019t really matter if the seminarians were presenting a talk on the Good Samaritan or whether they went into ministry primarily to help out humanity or not.\u00a0The only thing that mattered is whether or not they were in a hurry. To one group of students, the experimenters would casually say, \u201cIt will be a few minutes before they\u2019re ready for you, but you might as well head over now.\u201d To the other group they would look at their watches and say, \u201cOh, you\u2019re late.\u00a0They were expecting you a few minutes ago.\u201d <\/em>In the group that thought they had plenty of time, 63 percent stopped to help the man.\u00a0In the hurried group, only 10 percent stopped to help.<\/em> <\/strong>–<\/em>Mike O’Quinn, March 2, 2017<\/a>, emphasis mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary application is \u201ccontext.\u201d When the context was \u201churry,\u201d few stopped. In our case, our hurry kills margin. And with no margin we’re sometimes disobedient to our most fundamental calling of loving our neighbor (the context of The Good Samaritan). Maybe that’s why\u00a0Dallas Willard is often quoted as saying, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.<\/em> -Dallas Willard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings us to Jesus\u2019 lifestyle of margin. He never seemed to be in a hurry. Jesus stopped to heal a woman while on the way to help someone\u2019s daughter. (Luke 8.40 – 56<\/a>) Jesus seemed to have margin all the time. Here’s a story that starts with Jesus leaving Judea for Galilee\u00a0 by way of Samaria (John 4.3, 4<\/a>), and it ends with his spending two days in a Samaritan village:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman\u2019s testimony, \u201cHe told me all that I ever did.\u201d So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days<\/strong>.\u00a0And many more believed because of his word.\u00a0\u00a0(John 4.39 – 41, ESV, emphasis mine)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time to do something VERY important, he still had time for Zacchaeus: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, \u201cZacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.\u201d (Luke 19.5, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently read the Good Samaritan story during my morning time with God (Luke 10.25 – 37), and I recalled the modern-day experiment retold in Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s Tipping Point. Here\u2019s part of a summary by another blogger: In the experiment, seminary students were each asked to prepare a short talk on a biblical theme and … Continue reading What prevents obedience?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-Fz","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}