We’ve run into a fair few stray dogs thus far on the Race. Some are friendly, some aren’t. Either way, we’ve gotten used to seeing them around. This morning, we got to meet a cute brown and white puppy we decided to name Scraggle Butt (pronounced like Scrabble but with Gs), because half his body, the posterior end, was particularly scraggly. Anyway, I’m gonna walk you through the encounter with Scraggle Butt and then explain why we are just like him.
He came towards us because he was curious. We were new people he’d never seen before. Then, he barked at us as if he was testing how we would react. Would we be scared of him? Would we get up and leave? Would we come at him aggressively or try to hurt him? We just stayed put and acknowledged him but continued our conversation.
Next, he did the thing where he acts like he’s going to run straight into your arms and then runs away. Each time, he would get closer and closer but would stay just out of reach. This prompted us to try and engage with him a little more and as he got closer and closer, we kept stretching out our hands to invite him into our space.
And then, it happened! He tore at us and… threw himself onto his back in front of us. Now, I consider myself a dog person but if you are not someone who knows a lot about dogs, when a dog rolls on his or her back showing his or her stomach, this is a sign of surrender: the ultimate sign of surrender in the canine kingdom. After that, we were best friends. He loved running up to us to be pet or get an ear scratch. This is exactly how we as Christians often approach the Lord.
When we first hear about God, we are curious. Then we enter into a period where we test the waters. We put up a front against God, like a puppy barking at a stranger, to see if He’ll disappear or challenge us. When we are trying to discover what God is like, before we know that He is good and loving, we are afraid that He won’t want anything to do with us or that He will come at us to remind us that we are horrible people. However, He doesn’t do either. He stays with us and waits patiently.
When we finally get up the courage and realize that God is not going to attack or abandon us, we start moving in closer but we still aren’t sure how we feel about giving our lives totally to Him. He is reaching out his hands to us and inviting us into His presence but we haven’t begun to trust Him fully. This stage may go on for a long time, even years, and I know I hovered in this type of relationship with the Lord for far longer than I care to admit. I knew He loved me and I believed in Him but I still wanted to control my life. But, as I have discovered, true freedom comes only in complete surrender to the Lord. Just like Scraggle Butt, we have to throw ourselves down at the feet of Jesus and trust that He is not going to hurt us. This act of faith is difficult but it is the only way to enter into the full life that God has for each of us.
We are all cute stray puppies at different stages of trusting the Lord and I pray that each of us finds it in our hearts to sweetly surrender our lives to the Father. Be like Scraggle Butt and boldly enter into the love of God.
