The Permission Gambit

Neither my son nor my daughter ever ask me for permission to do anything anymore. That might seem shocking unless you know that my son is twenty-nine and my daughter is twenty-five. He's a successful leader in an entrepreneurial start-up and she's an accomplished international educator currently living in Egypt. So it's not odd at all that neither of them look to me for permission to do what they do. They're adults. There was a time when they needed my permission but not anymore.

It seems to me that too many Christians who happen to also be adults, are waiting around for someone to give them permission. Permission to do what, you might ask. Permission to do what God is calling them to do. When the overwhelming urge to do something meets abject fear at the challenge of doing that thing one of the plays we make to get out of it is the permission gambit. It comes in certain forms, like declaring the lack of proper credentials, not being ordained, not having completed schooling, not being certified, etc. All of these are a form of saying, 'I don't have permission to do that.'

I know of a church that wanted to place a missionary to another country. The denominational headquarters told them they didn't have permission to do that. So they didn't. One could argue that the church was submitting to the authority of the denomination, but I would ask...'If God has called you to act and the denomination has denied permission, to whose authority do you submit?' Likewise, if you have a clear call from God to act but your church refuses to give you permission are you using the permission gambit as a convenient excuse to avoid the challenge of God's call? Or are you rightly submitting to the authority God has placed over you? That's a tricky question.

God uses earthly authorities is a variety of ways. Sometimes they do restrain us as an agent of God. Sometimes they restrain us in opposition to God. My personal bias is that in most cases it is the latter not the former at work. If we have attained maturity in the faith then it may be time to stop asking permission to do what God has called us to do. Perhaps it's time to shake off the shackles of bureaucratic organization and seize the challenges God is laying before us. But be prepared. You will be confronted, sometimes violently, by those who believe they must first give you permission.

Remember Saint Paul was beaten nearly to death by people who thought he needed their permission and had ordered him not to speak of Jesus.