The Yoke

Can you find freedom in commitment?

In a culture where freedom is valued so highly there is resistance to the idea of being tied down.  I know I have felt this resistance in my own life.  Having every minute of my day scheduled with obligations is stressful to me.  Committing to serve in one place for more than a season brings a weight of responsibility.  I want to be free to travel, to leave in five minutes if someone calls at the last minute to invite me somewhere, to believe what I think is right…I don't want to be joined to a place or a person who I will have to consider and consult in every move I make.  I don't want someone else dictating my choices.

And yet as many of you who have spent time with me know, I fight to set appointments.  To change that vague "we should catch up soon" to a time, date, and place.  Because I have lived a life where the time gets filled up with busy-ness and the important things that patiently wait get put to the side. Commitment seems to be necessary to reach the fullness and wholeness I desire in my life.

And so the paradox of God's kingdom comes into play: the way to freedom is through submission.

At the base right now we are going through a season of staff development.  What does that mean?

Freedom through submission with the yoke.

It means that our core staff group is spending time digging into our own personal growth and also growth together as a body.  We have had a number of different guest speakers come and share with us over the past month and it was one of these speakers who got me thinking about the topic of freedom through submission, the concept of "the yoke."

Many Christians are familiar with the passage in Matthew 11:28-30 which talks about the yoke:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

In times of struggle and stress certain words have stood out to me to bring a sense of comfort: rest, gentle, easy, light burdens…yet I have let the concept of the yoke itself remain unexplored and vague.  Though this may have brought some comfort in the short term, I think it has been to my detriment in the long term. I want the freedom to take this help to carry burdens when times are tough, but then I often leave the restraints of the yoke when my way seems to be working. More and more I am realizing that submitting to the direction of the yoke might be a good idea all the time.  It would probably keep the burdens from becoming so overwhelming not to mention the encouragement that would come from knowing someone is beside you no matter what.

And so with a nudge from this speaker I have been pondering the idea of the yoke.  Does submissive obedience lead to freedom?

With direction (like a yoke) I can serve in so many ways
that I don't have the knowledge or experience to do
on my own.

The yoke Jesus refers to in this passage would have been heavy and made of wood.  It would have joined two oxen together so that a farmer could direct the oxen's strength to perform tasks.  We are not so useful for service in the kingdom until we have surrendered to the yoke.

Although heavy on it's own, a carefully crafted yoke would not be burdensome to an ox who did not fight against it to go in a direction different from the other ox or the direction of the farmer.  I think I am in the stages of getting used to the yoke.  Most days I've graduated from the "stiff-necked" ox stage where the yoke cannot even be placed on my neck because I refuse to humble myself and ask for direction.  Often now my struggle is to trust the gentleness of the yoke.  To know that although that patch of grass to my left or right looks delicious, my eyes need to stay focused on the field ahead that needs to be worked.  That my attempts to direct life actually make things more complicated and painful than they would otherwise be.  I need to learn to communicate with the partner I am yoked to and to understand the directions of the one holding the reins.

Although my understanding of the passage in Matthew refers to being yoked to Jesus, there was another scripture that came to mind as I thought more about being yoked.  As being yoked is a form of commitment, my mind also turned to one of the biggest commitments that most people make in their lives: marriage.  There is an illustration in Paul's letter to the Ephesian church that I have been chewing on for about a year which I understood in a different light with the picture of the yoke.

In Epheisans 5:23 Paul writes:

"For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior."

Does the commitment of marriage or other
important relationships have the impact of the yoke?

What if you imagine instead of the husband being the "boss" of the wife, the picture of the husband being joined by a yoke to the wife.  They share the load of decisions, responsibilities, emotional baggage, and their service with the yoke.  It can be a gentle yoke and an easier burden if they learn to communicate and walk together, perhaps with the husband taking some responsibility of being under Christ's leadership.  Perhaps Christ is the one with the reins? I'm just thinking "out loud" here…or now that I think about it more, I imagine Christ actually under the yoke with the couple.  He is sharing that load, encouraging them to keep moving forward, reminding them to keep their eyes focussed on each other and their rhythm in sync with him and each other…

Although I may not be yoked to a husband at this point, I have made a commitment to be yoked to this YWAM base, to the DTS ministry, to this staff team.  Sometimes the yoke makes life simpler and sometimes it is a challenge against my independence.  However, the more I get comfortable with my yoke the more I am free to grow and serve.

After a tough day where my own thoughts took the reins, I am ready once again to bow my head and go back to the yoke.  Praying that "the more I practice, the better I get" to quote one of my mentors from my teaching practicum.