I’m working from home today. It’s a great working environment: calm and focused. Our dog lies peacefully at my feet. Until a vehicle dares to enter our cul-de-sac, that is. Then our 25-pound Australian Labradoodle leaps to the window, both paws on the window sill, and turns into a ferocious beast.
The Amazon delivery guy pulls up to the curb, jumps out with a package in tow, and places it at the front door. Our dog howls as though a cadre of gunmen have encircled our property. This is no sociable bark to his neighborhood doggie friends: this is a protect-the-house-at-all-costs-bay. The deliveryman hustles back to his van and pulls out of the cul-de-sac.
My dog settles back down at my feet. He’s protected the home from another invasion. In his mind, he’s batting a thousand. 849 attempted burglaries all thwarted by his fearsome presence.
Every time the Amazon guy drops that package off and then hustles back to the car, it seems that our dog thinks that his barking was just the thing that protected us.
The real lesson, of course, is that the Amazon delivery driver posed zero threat. The conclusion our dog should have drawn is that there is no need to bark at delivery men.
We recently preached through the book of Judges. Time after time the judges misunderstand God’s gracious response to them. Jepthah wickedly follows through with a foolish promise to kill the first person he sees, which turns out to be his daughter. God mercifully doesn’t strike him down, so he continues on turning God into a god of his own making, controlled by such petty things as vows. Gideon faithlessly throws out a fleece, unwilling to take God at his word, and God mercifully gives him a sign. Gideon asks for another sign later, still unmoved by the security of God’s word. Samson is led by his fleshly lusts, and God graciously doesn’t remove his mantle of leadership, and so he continues to follow the foolish desires of his heart. On and on it goes.
I’m led to ponder: how many times have I drawn the wrong conclusions in my own life? How often have I misinterpreted the data? What conclusions should I re-evaluate? What feedback loops are broken?
Where have I turned God’s mercy into license? Where have I turned my folly into wisdom?
I’ve had so many of my own foolish beliefs turn to dust. Two of those beliefs that stand out were my belief that learning about God has an outsized role in our sanctification and that establishing relational boundaries is unbiblical. Learning about God is important and I do believe it is part of what it means to grow in Christ-likeness, but I’ve learned to believe that the Christian disciplines, and trusting and obeying Christ are more significant still. I used to think that Christ’s admonition to turn the other cheek meant that creating relational boundaries was unbiblical. I’ve come to see that there are times when wise living means that we need to protect ourselves from toxic relationships. These are just the tip of the iceberg of my foolish beliefs.
I’ve explained very gently to our dog that his barking is unnecessary and yet, to date, he has ignored me. Where in my life do I need to seek God’s wisdom? Where is his Word gently rebuking me? What wise friends do I need to pull into my life to help me see blind spots? Where am I learning the wrong lesson?
Let’s stop barking at the front door long enough to learn what God has for us.
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Photo by John Beeson