To obey or not to obey…

My older brother and I were chatting and we were talking about obedience in action and obedience of the heart/will. It seems clear that if I stop at the stop sign, even if I do it grudgingly, it’s still “obeying”.

If I wash the dishes at my wife’s request, and I do it grudgingly, I’ve still fulfilled her request …I think…

If I visit and listen to one of God’s hurting children, and I successfully provide her/him some comfort, even though the entire time I’m wishing that I was someplace else or doing something else, am I still serving God?

Or to put it plainly, can one obey God grudgingly and still call it obedience?

I think of Jesus’ parable of the two children. One says, “No” but later does the chore. The other says, “Yes” but never shows up.
I think of Jonah who–after the big fish incident–grudgingly goes to Nineveh and (to his own dismay) delivers a message that saves them from distruction. And yet God feels compelled to confront Jonah’s lack of compassion. Was Jonah obedient or not?

My brother went on to suggest that we might begrudge something–and receive no joy from it–because we’re doing something that we’re actually not supposed to be doing–or not the right person for the job. But, I can also imagine that we do somethings grudgingly and “obediently” because they are a part of, support, or make possible the callings and relationships that we want to be in and do.

God loves and blesses a cheerful giver, to be sure. But how about the one who’s doing it out of obligation, or still learning how to be cheerful about it? In light of the grace that frees us (see Ephesians 2:8-10) for good works, maybe this is over-thinking the whole issue of “obedience”…