He was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered. (Heb. 5:7–8)
Expanded Passage: Hebrews 5:6-10
The lessons that cost us greatly are often the ones we remember the most. If we’re fortunate, the cost is merely monetary, but sometimes we get it written permanently on our skin.
What began in haste as a “walk-in” to a cramped studio in downtown Chicago turned into a two-hour sit-in that led to one of my life’s most visible failures: an upside-down tattoo. After several back-and-forth discussions with the artist about placement, it only later dawned on me that I got the tattoo upside down.
The irony? “Slow down” was the meaning of the Hebrew characters the artist penned on my wrist. Even further is the comedy of getting a speeding ticket for breezing thirty miles over the limit only two months later. The lessons that cost us greatly—whether written upside down on our wrists or withdrawn from our bank account to pay tickets we deserve—will be the ones we remember the most.
Obedience is best learned from the lessons that cost us. And the lessons learned are evidence of a God who cares enough to correct us, to clarify his desire for us, and call us to keep his commands, because submission, not insistence, is what the Father listens to. And we know from 1 John 2:6 that “whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” So how will you?
Thank God for his correcting hand.
Amy Boyle lives in Indianapolis, where she’s a disciple, friend, and neighbor, an Indiana Wesleyan alum and twenty-something, passionate about knowing Jesus and making him known.
© 2026 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
