I didn’t want to give up on the campus outreach that I had spent months investing in. My team and I had prayed for weeks about starting the outreach, then we had earned the trust of the heads of the English department on campus, and finally we had been doing English camps for the students for two semesters. It was the kind of outreach I loved. So when my leaders told me that we were spread too thin and would have to focus our efforts to the village we were working in, rather than the campus, I was angry. 

They were right of course, even though I couldn’t see it at the time. Our team of three was doing so much that we couldn’t really go deep with anyone that we were meeting. If we would have kept going, we could have become completely burnt out with no fruit to show for it. Plus, the campus outreach didn’t fit into the big-picture vision that our team was working toward.

There is protection found in obedience to those who are in leadership over us. When we resist their guidance in our lives, thinking that we know better, we make their job harder. Healthy leaders are like an umbrella over us that keeps us out of the rain; when we disobey what they are asking of us, we get wet and they are unsuccessful in the work of watching over our souls. (Hebrews 13:17)

I obeyed my leaders begrudgingly, but in the end, I saw the fruit. My team was able to see so much more fruit in the village than we had seen on the campus. We were also able to feel more united in purpose with the rest of our team on the field. And who knows what kind of burnout we may have avoided. 

If we really trust God and our leaders to have our good in mind, we will come under the umbrella of obedience even when we don’t understand. Submitting ourselves in obedience doesn’t have to be something that binds us, but a joy that sets us free.