Accessible Success

If you have read the book, you may have noticed some of the Bible quotes look a little different than what you see in most translations. In particular, where you probably have “The LORD” in your Bible, this one says “Yahweh.” There’s some history around how that came to be, but for the sake of brevity I will leave that for another time. Suffice it to say for now that the use of God’s personal name, Yahweh, Given to Moses in Exodus 3:14-15, is a more accurate translation. There are several passages throughout the Old Testament that make a lot more sense when God’s name appears where it should.

Generally, in order to avoid confusion for those who may not know this and to avoid offending those who feel that we should take more care in the use of the holy name, I have chosen of late to continue the conventional use of God or the Lord when I write. However, at times I think it is preferable to be specific. The appellation, God, does not necessarily draw to mind the Christian God that in times past would have been understood.

God has been defined in many ways, often in conflict with the Judeo-Christian understanding of who and what He is. My Hindu friend once mentioned to me that as part of a ceremony he prayed to God. I did not ask him which god, but I have very little doubt that Yahweh was not that god. So, when I talk or write about the one true God, I like to use His name. I want to leave no doubt as to Who I am referencing. Glory to His name alone!

I like dogs. I believe God uniquely created them to meet our needs just as he created everything else on this earth. I am amazed by the diversity of things they have been bread and trained to do. I have had pictures and statues of them everywhere. I certainly do not wish to give offense to anyone who loves these amazing animals. Please know this as you continue reading.

One day I came across a video that really got to me. I’ve never quite been able to understand having a deep emotional attachment to an animal, yet watching a video of a complete stranger whose dog was shot right in front of him about did me in. The screaming of the dog and the crying of the man replayed my memory like a very bad dream. I think maybe the Lord let me see that so that I would react with more compassion toward people who are close to their animals. I don’t know if it changes my opinion of how things should be, but it certainly changed my attitude toward the way things are.

When I was growing up, we had dogs at different times, but due to changing circumstances we never seemed to be able to keep one. Like many children, we wanted to have a dog, but usually didn’t do a very good job of caring for it when we got one. I suppose I loved them, but I would characterize it as the kind of affection a child might have for a favorite toy. Yet probably due to the books and television shows that depicted dogs larger than life, I always had an idealized picture of what a dog might be. I wanted the myth more than I wanted the reality. How many animals end up in shelters to be put down for much the same reason?

Even so, I never came to think of dogs as other than animals. The idea of loving a dog or any animal in the same way that we love other people is hard for me to understand. No dog can take the place of a human being. It is incomprehensible to me that anyone would put the needs of a pet over the needs of a family member or any human being for that matter. A pet may be considered a family member only in the broadest of terms. It may be loved and cared for by the family but should never be considered as an equal.

People say their dogs love them unconditionally. I don’t know if a dog is capable of love. I don’t suppose that anyone can be certain of such things. Certainly, there are verifiable accounts to be found of dogs doing things that sure look like love to us. I will share one here.  I do not claim to know where the line should be drawn between instinctive and emotive behavior. After all, I will concede that much of my understanding of animal behavior comes from the same people who believe that we are nothing more than sophisticated apes. Despite such preposterous pretenders as the Pet Psychic of past television fame, none of us really know what they are feeling or thinking. As I think it through, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that some level of emotional attachment exists, just as a young child who cannot intellectualize what he feels still loves his mother and father. He may continue to love them even if he comes to understand that they do not love him.

I think that what happens between pets and people is often an unhealthy replacement for missing human relationships. Because the creature does appear to offer unconditional love and lacks the capacity to hurt us in the way that another human can, we find it to be a safe way to meet our need. However, it does not meet the need. There is no suitable replacement in the animal kingdom for the human relationships that God designed us to have. As childlike as a dog may be in many ways, it cannot ever be a child. It may perform actions that you interpret as love, but it can never tell you that it loves you in words. It has no real concept of words or the conscious and coherent thoughts which produce them. It does not simply lack the means to speak. It lacks the concept of speech. It can neither substitute for a child nor a real friend. It can only be what it was created to be, a dog. When the unequal relationship between human and dog impairs or supplants the God-given relationship between human and human, something is tragically wrong.

Unhealthy relationships with animals can even destroy human connections. I recognized the potential for this in my own life before it had a chance to become a problem. It was 1997 and I had just moved to Dallas. I was living alone in an apartment, and I had been thinking about getting a dog for some time. This was the first place I lived on my own where it was permitted. I learned that a local shelter brought adoptable dogs to the pet store a reasonable walking distance from my apartment. I went up to look, but something didn’t feel right. The first week I didn’t bring one home. I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach that usually meant God was telling me “no.” That’s not the answer I wanted to hear, so I rationalized it and went back the second week.

Thus began a mighty tough week. I brought home a chihuahua dubbed Mickey by the shelter, but thinking every big-eared chihuahua in the country is probably called Mickey, I changed his name to Mighty. The name kept the mouse theme, and I thought it was a great appellation for a little tiny chihuahua. He wasn’t the sort of dog I imagined having. I’ve never really liked them. Most of them I’ve ever known were noisy and neurotic. Mighty was friendly and mostly quiet.

With the vet checkup, food, and supplies plus the pet deposit I dropped $500 on that free dog before the day was out, but I had everything I thought we would need. I still remember the feeling I had sitting in the chair next to the TV with Mighty on my lap. I had a friend. I had something to love. I imagined the beginning of a fulfilling companionship that would last for years and keep me from being alone. We played with the squeaky ball and rolled around on the floor, and I had what I wanted.

I knew better. Even then I knew what I was trying to do. I needed a friend. That little dog could never really be the friend I needed. As you might guess, the next few days brought home the reality of owning a dog, particularly a house dog. Due in part to the emotional instability I was experiencing at the time, I soon realized I couldn’t handle it. I wish now I had been able to hang on. The no-kill shelter took him back and I suspect he found a good home, but I’ll never know. I did learn my lesson though. God wanted me to leave room for real relationships in my life and not to substitute anything less.

Eventually I took in another one. When I moved to where I live now I not-so-subtly hinted that I would like to have Savanna, a chow/collie mix that had originally belonged to my sister and was with my parents at the time. I wasn’t sure how attached they were to her, so I didn’t want to come right out and ask. I had always liked her. She was sweet as they come (provided you didn’t walk on four legs) and smart. She was an outside dog, though well behaved in the house. She preferred to be outside and wanted me to be outside with her.

By then I was in a very different place in my life. She didn’t come with the same expectations. I enjoyed having her around. I always felt guilty though. Dogs may just be animals, but when we take them for our own, we have a responsibility to meet their needs too. It’s even written in the Bible. Proverbs 10:12 says in part “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal…” My life was just too busy. I worked downtown, often had church functions, and spent most of the remainder of my time in front of the computer at home. Most of the time my interaction with Savanna was to go out and fill her food and water bowls. Like the clichéd guilty parent, I bought her toys hoping she would occupy herself with them, but it’s hard to play fetch with yourself. So, when my sister moved back to a place where she could have a dog and was considering one for her kids, I told her she should take Savanna back. I did miss her when she left. Every time I walked past the back door where she would stand begging me to come out and play, I felt a little pang of sadness.

I believe it was best, at least with the information I had at the time. God made dogs to be social creatures. They need lots of interaction with people and with their own kind. If you want a well-behaved dog around people, the former needs to be foremost. I would not have willingly taken on another unless circumstances changed such that I had a need for the dog or the desire to spend the time necessary to treat it right.

But I did. Her name was Tia. She came with the wife. I was actually happy to have her in the beginning. She was the perfect dog for me; someone else’s responsibility yet available to me when I felt like interacting with it. At first, I walked her, tried to play with her and establish a bond. The relationship quickly soured. Linda and I had very different ideas about what was acceptable behavior and about a dog’s place in the household. Tia had been a companion and source of comfort to Linda for many years, and neither seemed very willing to make adjustments for me. That isn’t entirely true, but it was hard for me to see it.

Though not able to really understand Linda’s feelings about the dog, I recognized that nothing I could do would change them. I knew that trying to force my preferences on her would only keep Tia between us even after she was no longer with us. I didn’t hate the dog. She had some behavioral issues, but she was just a dog. She could not have any concept of the emotional tumult surrounding her, much less have any responsibility for it. She simply acted like a dog.

I think the Lord was dealing with me on what I really needed to do. As an act of love for my wife, I needed to make a best effort to love the dog. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The best I could manage was to treat Tia with kindness and not take my pain and frustration out on her.

God is gracious. Despite my reluctance to do what I needed to do, He moved Linda to take the first step. She agreed to a change I wanted from the beginning. That issue was the greatest obstacle to me being able to accept Tia and believe that I was really the most important to Linda. We had a major training breakthrough and my whole attitude changed. I loved my wife more than ever, and I tried to learn to love the dog too.

I can’t say I ever really got there, but there was a positive development in 2013, not long before we lost her.  Linda has multiple sclerosis.  In January of that year, she experienced a major attack and was hospitalized for several weeks.  We had a dog door. It was common for Tia to go in and out several times as she roamed the house, but when I would come home from the hospital and sit down at my desk, I began to notice she was doing it more frequently.  I’d hear the slap of the flap as she went out and came back in, then the jingle of her tags as she paced up and down the hall.  It finally occurred to me what was going on.  She was searching for Linda.  When we’re both gone, we almost always come back together.  But something was wrong.  I was there but Linda wasn’t.  Did Tia love Linda?  I suppose that only God knows for sure, but I’m certainly not going to say she didn’t.  I did feel a little closer to Tia after that experience.

A few months later, we lost her.  Partially deaf and blind and under the influence of medication that the vet had given her so they could work on her ears, she wandered into the pool and drowned.  Thinking that she was asleep on the sofa, neither of us knew what had happened until it was far too late.  Naturally it was much harder on Linda than me.  I listened and let her grieve in her own time and way.

Will there be another dog in our lives?  Probably not.  We considered the idea for a while, but there are too many practical reasons why we shouldn’t.  My attitude has softened, but I still think it best to focus my emotional energy on human relationships.  I have a hard enough time doing that to accept any substitute.  But I have no doubt that God gave us the dog and knew what He was doing, so who knows?  I’m much less quick to judge now, and I am willing to accept that some time in the future there may be room in my heart for a furry friend.

Some years ago, a near tragedy in the family of a pastor friend of mine started me wondering if preachers’ kids really deserve their reputation.  I first did a quick search to see if I could find any hard data on the behavioral and psychological health of the children of ministers versus other children.  I hoped I might find some kind of clinical study, though I suspect that if I had found it the bias would have been extreme. 

I found some blogs and forum posts by preachers’ kids.  I wasn’t that impressed.  I read their stories of how they felt pressure to be especially good and how it made life harder for them among their friends.  Some of them used that as an excuse for their rebellious behavior.  I don’t doubt that those pressures and feelings exist.  I don’t remember feeling particularly put upon because I was a preachers’ kid, but my siblings may see things differently.  My final impression was of a bunch of psychobabble that allowed them to justify in their own minds the way they felt or what they did.

I found a couple of ministries devoted to preachers’ kids.  They didn’t move me either.  They seemed designed to affirm the kids’ feelings, treating them as if they really had a hard life.  We do face some atypical challenges.  There is a higher expectation of us.  So what?  High expectations are good!  Did we sometimes get neglected in favor of church or ministry activities?  Maybe, but how is that different than children of working parents in any profession?  I’ll grant that few if any other professions so involve the family in the work.  This isn’t just any job though.  It is work that all Christians are called to in one way or another.

I didn’t find what I was looking for, so I’ll offer my own opinion.  Someone wrote that preachers’ kids have a reputation for being really bad or really good.  I suppose I would concur, but I am not sure the reputation is deserved in either case.  More often we hear about the really bad.  I think that is because there is a higher expectation of a minister’s children.  When they don’t meet that expectation, it sticks out.  I remain unconvinced that preachers’ kids are any worse than others.  In fact, I suspect that in terms of behavior, morality, and responsibility, they beat the averages.  I didn’t say they were better or even good.  We may have had better training, but we all must confront the sinful nature that defines us until we are redeemed by His blood.  “There is none righteous, not even one.”  We, like everyone else, must make a choice whether we will serve Jesus or serve ourselves, thereby serving Satan and receiving Satan’s punishment.  “As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”

I am thankful that I was raised by a preacher.  I thank God regularly for the strong foundation upon which I base my life today.  My father taught me to love Jesus, love people, and live with integrity.  He taught me to pray, to feed on God’s Word, and to do what God tells me.  I’m proud to be a preacher’s kid, and I wish everyone else had the same blessing.

I am somewhat amused by our fascination with things that are “natural.”  In particular we apply this label to things we ingest, but it’s also seen on everything from soap to clothing.  I don’t think I’ve seen a natural car yet…Oh wait…I think we call those horses.  As I recall from my reading, they dirtied up a city like no car ever could.

Now don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing superior to God’s creation.  I have to believe that God gave us everything we need on this earth to solve any problem we may encounter.  Most of it probably grows “naturally.”  That is essentially what we mean by the term natural.  It required no transformation by the hand of man to make it what it is.

But how much of what we call natural can really fit that description?  Unless you went out into the jungle and pulled it out of the ground yourself, it has been through manmade processes.  Natural is a meaningless word.  Man has never really created anything.  We only take that which God created and arrange it in new ways to form something that would not come to be without our intervention.  There is nothing that is not natural since all of its components came from nature at some time.  The distinction of organic versus inorganic is more meaningful, but still human intervention brings the desired organic elements together.

The thing I find laughable is the assumption that just because it is natural or organic it is good for you.  There are all kinds of natural things that we all know are not good for us, yet we snatch up items on the supermarket shelf that say organic or natural with the idea that they are going to be better for us without questioning what makes them organic or natural.  Cases of e coli infection are higher with organic foods because they are grown using dung for fertilizer.  Want some potatoes?

I’m not saying we don’t corrupt or misuse what God has provided.  WE do, and we don’t need to look to chemical factories to find examples.  Last time I checked, Marijuana, the opium poppy, and coca all grew naturally.  We should be prudent in choosing what we consume, but we should not buy into the lie that anything man touches becomes bad.  Man used his God given ability to make life better.  Enjoy all of God’s creation, even the stuff we rearranged.

Some years ago I read this book, Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It’s Not Safe to Believe by Tom Doyle. We talk about persecution here in the United States, and there is a little to talk about, but the people whose stories are in this book can tell you about real persecution. I found myself wondering how we would do under the conditions they endure. Across the Middle East today, being a Christian may cost you everything you have, your life, and the lives of those you love. We fear a bit of ridicule or even a bit of discrimination. As I read it, I had a thought. Jesus asks no less from all of us than these are compelled to give. Our heads may be safe for now, but what about our hearts? Are we prepared to give Him everything we are and everything we have? That is what He asks.

We are correctly taught that salvation is a free gift. That means we didn’t do anything to earn it. We don’t deserve it. The problem arises when we don’t know its value and fail to treat it with due respect. We are like the stereotypical spoiled rich kid. We think we have a right to it. We treat it lightly because we fail to appreciate what we have. We may even acknowledge the truth, but our lives don’t reflect it.

It’s different when we feel we’ve earned something. By definition then it is not a gift. We understand its value because we worked for it. We treasure and guard it. What is necessary for us to take the same attitude toward the gift? We must come to understand its true value. There is no price we can pay to obtain salvation for ourselves. We must come to know the cost to the giver. This concept isn’t foreign to us. A gift may be of little monetary value, but if we know that a loved one made a sacrifice to give it, we place a higher value on it. In the case of salvation, the gift is beyond value, and it cost Jesus everything.

We must realize that we desperately need it and don’t deserve it. The very idea that we are all sinners is abhorrent to our society. The word, sin, is itself losing meaning in our culture. We have put man in the place of God. We have decided that we, not He, determine what is good. Evil, if usually acknowledged, is never applied to us. To appreciate what God has done for us, we have to come to a place where we are conscious of our unworthiness. When we get a glimpse of His holiness, we can’t help but know that we are doomed unless He chooses to show mercy.

He does so choose, and when we commit ourselves to Him, everything changes. He has bought us with the price of his own life (1 Co 6:20.) He did so freely, but in accepting that gift, we give our lives in return. Whether we live in Palestine of Israel or Palestine of Texas, the call is the same.

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and ‘will then repay every man according to his deeds.’”

Matthew 16:24-27 NASB 1995

A lot is happening in the chapter where these verses are found. The context is important, so let’s look at it. In verses 13-20 Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples by means of Peter’s confession. Verse 18 famously references Simon’s new name (Peter.) The proclamation that follows another topic that I won’t go into here. Peter’s revelation was not complete, as we see from what happens next.

Jesus goes on to foretell what will happen to Him when they get to Jerusalem. (v. 21) This isn’t the conclusion to the story that the disciples were expecting. Peter speaks up (22-23) and earns the stinging rebuke, “get behind me, Satan.” Why? He had a revelation of who Jesus was, but not what that meant. He’s thinking like we all do. A king comes to conquer, not to die. But Jesus will conquer death itself by dying.

Peter essentially says something we’ve all heard in some form today. “God wouldn’t do that!’ But He did do that, and it’s a very good thing He did. When we oppose God because we think that we know better what He should be doing, we are on the side of Satan. We would do well to remember this.

Next comes the passage above. We don’t know how much of a time gap is between them or that they are necessarily in order. We do know that Mark’s version says he gathered a crowd before he spoke these words (Mark 8:34.) The significant detail is that both writers group the events together. They have the same message. It is in the context of sacrifice that Jesus outlines what it means to be His disciple. He outlines what it takes with three points. A disciple must, “deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”  Let’s look at each one.

What does it mean to deny oneself? Some things are obvious. If the Bible clearly says something is sinful, we should resist the temptation to do it. We should resist any impulse or desire that would cause hurt to another. But Jesus’ statement goes further than that. Look at what just happened. Of course, we deny the lusts of the flesh, but we also put aside our own plans. We reject our own ideas about how things should be or what we want them to be. We subject our interests to His. The day of His return will come. Then he will conquer, and He will judge. But that is for Him to do. We will be with Him then, but we are here now, and He gave us the example to follow and the Holy Spirit to guide us.

Self-denial is not an end in itself. Neither is it a ritual to be practiced so that we appear more religious. That turns the whole concept upside down. That’s what the Pharisees did, and Jesus didn’t have anything good to say about it. God is not pleased by self-inflicted pain or privation for its own sake. He is pleased when we endure it for something greater. We deny ourselves in order to put Him and His first.

The second point would have been very real to the people Jesus was speaking to. They saw crucifixions firsthand. He’s just been telling them what is going to happen to Him. Mark’s account says he spoke plainly to them. Now He has taken it to another level. If there was any vagary in what He said before, it’s gone now. Not only that, He’s saying, “you too!” The disciples are going to be thinking right up to the time he ascends that He’s going to set up a kingdom and they’ll get prime positions. But He is showing them a very different path.

Then He says, “Follow Me.” To follow Him is to die. We die to our desires, our plans, and our ideals. We may be called upon to give up our physical lives. Nothing here is worth hanging onto. The truth is that’s the only way we can really live! That’s what He tells us in the next verse.

When we’re focused on ourselves, we will find that happiness is fleeting. Nothing in this world can sustain it. Read Ecclesiastes. In pursuit of our own desires above all else we will drive others away. Sometimes with intent and sometimes through negligence or apathy, we will do harm to them as well. In living this way, we will completely miss God. If this is the pattern of our lives, we need to ask ourselves if we ever met Him. 1 John, Chapter 3 makes it clear.

Then there’s the other side, “…whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” The key words here are “for My sake.” Know that your life is precious to Him. He gave it to you. He gave up His for you. He will not tell you to throw it away. You may be assured that a life dedicated to Him, even if shorter than we think it should be, is never lost. The way to truly lose your life is to spend it on things that have no eternal value.

Will we here in the West be required to offer our earthly lives for Him? Only He knows. The persecuted church around the world certainly has. Here we have had only isolated incidents, but if we keep on the way we are going, they will increase. What will we do?

We will do then what we do now. The call on our fellow believers in places like Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, Nigeria, and across the world is no different than ours. We serve the same Jesus. We read the same Bible. The language may change, but the truth does not. Will we stand up for the truth now? Will we defend the helpless? Are we willing to sacrifice a little of our comfort to meet the needs around us? Will we choose righteousness when it costs us something? If we won’t do it when it’s relatively easy, what makes us think we would do it when things get tough? I ask myself the same questions.

But if we truly give our lives, we will find real life. We will find it in the joy that comes from blessing others. We will find it in the reward that comes from doing things God’s way. Life just works better when you live according to God’s design. Trouble still comes, but in the midst of it we can have the peace that comes from communion with the Holy Spirit. We will find it as we enter into the joy of our master (Matt 25:14-30.) We will find it in eternal life with Him.

Next Jesus tells us how serious this is for us. This truly is a life-or-death decision. Choose to live for yourself, and you will face death forever. Choose to die to yourself, and He will give you real life. What is the price of your soul? All the treasure in the world can’t buy it. Only One could pay the price, and He loved you enough to do it. He is our master. He paid the price for us. We either submit to His lordship or we live in rebellion against it. The day will come when we must answer for our decision.

He has told us that He is coming back. He will judge the world. The problem is we’re all guilty. We’ve all missed the mark of perfection. It is only because of what He did for us that we have hope. He served our sentence. Yet we are not without responsibility. Mark’s Gospel records this final warning in Jesus’ sermon.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:38 NASB 1995

The paradox here has been a topic of hot debate between theologians for centuries. Millennia is probably more like it, but more recent records are better known. I won’t go into that much here, but I find interesting the cross references I found while studying this to the part of Jesus’ statement that is considered to be a quote from Old Testament passages. They present an interesting contrast and define our mission.

And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, For You recompense a man according to his work.

Psalm 62:12 NASB 1995

The psalmist has just contrasted man’s insignificance with God’s power in the previous verses. Here, lovingkindness, (or faithful love, loyal love, mercy) is equated with this judgment. Love isn’t love without justice, but justice demands we all pay a price. Because of His love for us, He paid that price. Our salvation comes from His work, not ours. But when we become His, we get a mission. If we truly have given our lives to Him, things will begin to change. The next reference shows us something of what it looks like and serves as another warning.

¹⁰ If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited. ¹¹ Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. ¹² If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?

Proverbs 24:10-12 NASB 1995

We have a job to do. We were given a gift. It is the most valuable gift ever given. The One who gave it to us expects that we will share it. The nature of the gift compels us. It is the gift of life. No one truly lives without it. He who gave it to us is watching. What will we do? Here is another proverb.

²⁷ Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.  ²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.

Proverbs 3:27-28 NASB 1995

This has more to do with the physical realm, but how much more the message of the Gospel? There’s an implication of asking here, and surely none of us who believe would delay sharing if asked directly. But it should never be far from our thoughts. Knowing that so many around us will die without what we have, how can we keep silent?

Paul packages it neatly in these verses from his letter to the Ephesians.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB 1995

Salvation is a free gift that we can’t earn no matter how many good works we do. But God gave it to us with the intent that we would in fact do good works. Jesus gave His life for us. When we become His, our faith demands action. We give our lives for Him. That is only possible because of Him. We’ll be arguing about the details until His return. We don’t need to have all the answers. We just need to trust The Answer. Trust Him with everything.