“[Shasta] turned and raced for the gate in the green wall which, now for the first time, he remembered seeing. Hwin, stumbling and nearly fainting, was just entering the gate: Aravis still kept her seat but her back was covered with blood. ‘Come in, my daughter, come in,’ the robed and bearded man was saying, and then, ‘Come in, my son,’ as Shasta panted up to him. . . . They were in a wide and perfectly circular enclosure, protected by a high wall of green turf. A pool of perfectly still water, so full that the water was almost exactly level with the ground, lay before him. At one end of the pool, completely overshadowing it with its branches, there grew the hugest and most beautiful tree that Shasta had ever seen. Beyond the pool was a little low house of stone roofed with deep and ancient thatch. . . . ‘Are—are—are you,’ panted Shasta, ‘are you King Lune of Archenland?’ The old man shook his head. ‘No,’ he replied in a quiet voice, ‘I am the Hermit of the Southern March. And now, my son, waste no time on questions, but obey. This damsel is wounded. Your horses are spent. Rabadash is at this moment finding a ford over the Winding Arrow. If you run now, without a moment’s rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.’

Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was:

‘Where is the King?'” (C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy).

You might have heard that the reward for a job well done is more work. If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking something like “Well, if that’s the reward, where can I return it? I’d rather have rest for a reward.”

But when it comes to God’s service, obedience is not a have-to as much as it is a get-to. It’s not so much that I am forced to live by God’s rules and commands, but I get to find the joy that comes from living by God’s design. I get to see God working through my willingness and faithfulness.

Usually, when we’re not hearing from God, it means that there’s something God has already told us to do that we haven’t done yet. Only when we finally obey and live out what we already know will God reveal more. Only when we have stepped out in faith will God show us the next step.

I’d love to say that I always seek God’s will from a cheerful and pure heart, but I can confess that too often there is mixed in a spirit of complaining. There’s a part of me that wants to seek comfort over obedience, to let someone else to the work. But then that someone experiences the blessing of obedience and I miss out.

May we seek the joy that comes from obedience. Jesus said that the way we show love to God is to do what He says. It’s not about emotional and cathartic worship or about the amount of knowledge we possess but simply how willing are we to obey what we know God has told us.

May we always trust and obey, for there really is no other way.