I am trying to write this but my dog keeps pestering me. Last evening we took her swimming and another Black Lab named Cyrus gave her a tennis ball. You would have thought he had given her the moon. She was ecstatic. We couldn’t get her to come home until he went home. That tennis ball has become the object of much attention. Because I will not throw it for her, I am trying to write this, she is throwing it for herself and then running to retrieve it before it rolls under the couch. When it does I have to get up and lift the couch so she can retrieve it. If I don’t I am barked at until I catch on. She wonders about my intelligence and why I can’t learn faster.
My dog and God have that same characteristic in common. He cannot understand why I don’t learn faster. For decades He has been trying to teach me all kinds of useful habits. And for decades I have been resisting. I eat things I shouldn’t. I don’t get enough rest. I read and watch things that rot my brain. I don’t spend enough time in His Word. It really isn’t that I don’t know better. It’s that I just do the things I want to do regardless of the resulting effects.
I know I can’t be the only one in this sorry state. I see people smoking. Now how can anyone in this age not know what that does? My newspaper runs stories about alcohol related fatal auto accidents. Really now, does anyone not know drinking and driving is a recipe for disaster?
The more I think about it the more I understand God and my dog are not alike. He knows I know. She wonders.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org