Lessons From My Dog

After I’d been in prayer for a while this morning, my dog began to rattle around.  I mean that literally.  Max wears a collar with some dog tags on it that rattle when he moves around.  I got out of my chair and took Max outside.  I brought him in when he was finished and he headed straight for the bedroom in which my wife was asleep.  Max is rather old.  He doesn’t see or hear very well so he no longer hears my loud whisper, “Max, get out.”  I pushed him out of the room and he headed for the door, again, as if he was thinking I was going to take him outside again.  I began to get frustrated.  I just wanted him to lay back down again, which he will often do after we’ve first taken him out early in the morning.  I left him standing in the living room and headed back to the study to pray some more.  Just as I sat down I thought, “I’m not going to leave him there.  He’ll just wander around and make noise.” So I went back out and, even though I was feeling rather frustrated with him, I bent down, gently picked him up (he’s a small bichon) and carried him back to the study where I set him down and gently pushed him towards a pillow of his in there.

In my prayers, I had been thanking God for the freedom he has given me – more freedom than most people have in the world – to choose what to do in the course of a day let alone with most of my life.  I reflected on some of the wrong choices I’ve made and wondered if I hadn’t been better off with God restricting me more with fewer options.  (I read an article that said that wealth is measured by the choices we have available to us.  Wealthy people have more options.)

I then thought of Max.  I gave Max some options and he chose ones I didn’t want him to choose.  After a bit of time, I chose for him, although the result did not seem to be one of rebellion or anger on his part.

Sometimes God puts us in a place where our choices are limited because he recognizes that the choice that needs to be made is likely to be lost if there are too many options available.  But God wants us to be free… like himself. The salvation that Christ brought to us through his own sacrifice is one that brings us back to being like God, having the freedom to choose that which is good and right and lovely and pure.

I want my day to be filled with those kinds of choices regardless of the options I do or do not have.  Regardless of what my dog may choose or even think, I always have the option to choose what God would have me choose.  That’s freedom.  That’s salvation.  That’s the good news.

 

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)