Dave and I are dog-sitting for two pugs that belong to Dave’s daughter and her husband while they are on a business trip in the Netherlands. The dogs are nothing alike. PJ loves to play and chase her ball, and Zoe is lazy and gets excited only when her food is being prepped and placed on her eating mat.

This morning, following their breakfast and a trip to the backyard, Zoe started choking.  Instead of letting me help her, she ran.  (Seriously, who runs when they are choking?)  After a few minutes of her avoiding me, I finally caught her and began massaging her throat, probably saving her life.  She demonstrated no gratitude.

We were going to go for a walk.  PJ stood still and let me put her collar and leash on her.  Zoe refused, forcing me to chase her around the kitchen table and the dining room table and from room to room.  She, the chubbier one who needed the exercise more, refused to let me give her the protection she needed to go outside.  PJ and I left the house to a whining pooch-sister scratching to get out the front door.

Isn’t that just like us?  We who need the most spiritual discipline stubbornly run from what God knows we need and do instead what we think is best or convenient or easy.  He wants us to use our gifts to honor Him, but we think first of how those gifts can make our lives better.              What’s in it for me?

There are few parables more popular than the prodigal son.  Tired of the doldrums of living under his parents’ rules, he asks his father for his inheritance and do-si-do’s out of town.  I love how the father, knowing this would be a huge mistake, still gives his boy just what he asks for. The wayward son wastes all of his money and ends up living in a pig stye so decides to return to his father and repent, hoping to be accepted as a servant. However, his father, upon seeing his younger son, celebrates his return and treats him like royalty.  The parallel to our Heavenly Father is obvious. Too bad we don’t learn from this parable.

Why is it we have such a hard time yielding to what God knows we need and instead, like the prodigal son, think we know better?  A little gossip can’t hurt, right?  How about the way we justify our critical spirit?  Or fail to tithe for one of a dozen reasons?  Or wait for someone to edify us before we say an encouraging word to them? Or refuse to show mercy? What about this one: “I just don’t feel like it?”                                                                                                                        Yikes!

Sadly, Zoe offers a lesson to all of us.  When we are in trouble, we need to run into the arms of our Heavenly Father and not turn our backs on him, thinking we know better. It’s not a fun way to be left behind.