Sandy

COMMENTS

This posting is actually a devotional that I gave a couple of months ago at Community Bible Study.  I hope you find it interesting and beneficial.  One of the illustrations was used in a previous blog so if it sounds familiar, it is!

NOTES

This past spring we kept our grandson’s dog for about 3 months while he was out of state.  One morning, I called Roscoe to put him outside to take care of his business.  Roscoe disapproved of this idea and promptly laid back down on his bed and went back to sleep.

As I looked at him, my memories took me back about 25 years to a dog we had when my kids were growing up.  Sandy was 16 when she died, which (as I understand it) is about 112 in people years.  She was a very unusual dog, not tiny but small.  She was gray with black spots and had one blue eye and one eye that was half brown and half blue.  And Sandy had quite a personality.  For a dog, she was a pretty good mouser.  Our other dog, Muffin, caught a mouse one day and, being the gentle creature she was, she was having a wonderful time playing with the terrified creature until Sandy happened upon the scene.  She ended that foolishness with a quick BITE, and I’m sure that Muffin got a lecture on the appropriate way to deal with any future mice found on our homestead!  One of our favorite things about Sandy, though, would occur when my husband would sit on the patio playing his harmonica.  Sandy would join his concert, and such howling you’ve never heard!  We recorded it with our VHS camera (remember those?!) and always threatened to send it to Funniest Home Videos but never quite got around to it.

One day, we were all outside; and Sandy started off down the driveway.  I called her:  “Sandy!  Come here, girl!”  Sandy stopped and looked back at me.  You could see the wheels turning---“Do I want to go back to her or not………NAH!”  And she trotted on down the driveway, determined to follow her plan and do what she wanted to do.

Thinking about that event of so long ago—which has always been so funny to me—suddenly became very serious.  How many times have I been trotting down God’s driveway, only to have Him call me:  “Brenda!  Come here!”?  How many times have I stopped and looked back at Him and thought, “Do I want to go to Him or not?”  How many times have I said, “NAH!” and trotted on down the driveway, determined to follow my plan and do what I wanted to do?

The thing is:  we have a choice.  In His mercy, God made the choice to give us a choice.  He calls us.  He commands us.  But He does not force us.  He wants us to obey because we choose to obey.  We may choose to obey out of love for Him.  Sometimes, we may choose to obey out of fear of what will happen if we don’t.  We may choose to obey because we trust that He loves us and that His plan is for our good—our best.  But it is a choice, and it is our choice.

As I was thinking about making choices, I wondered how many times a day I do that.  What frightened me was realizing how many “choices” I make by “default”.  What I mean is that I don’t really think about the fact that I’m actually choosing.  Instead of consciously deciding, I let my habits or my mood or my desires or my human tendencies decide without even giving it a thought.  But I still made the choice.   Let me give you an embarrassing example:

Quite some time ago, I got an email that was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious.  So, I laughed out loud and proceeded to forward it to a few close friends.  It was a little “off color”, so I included a comment that the recipient should let me know if it was offensive so that I wouldn’t send any future off-color missives their way.  The need to include such a comment should have been a wake-up call.

As I lay in bed that night, little pricks of conscience nagged me; but they were easy enough to ignore.  The Holy Spirit must have been working on me as I slept because by mid-morning the following day, my conscience was in full-blown revolt.  I couldn’t think about anything else.  So, I surrendered.  I asked God to forgive me and determined to send an apologetic email to my victims as soon as I got home.  At that moment, peace came. 

Sending that email was a “default” sin.  Without thinking, I yielded to my human tendency to share something funny.  Something that shouldn’t have been shared.  Then, God gave me another chance.  As I stood on God’s driveway for a second time, He called to me again, asking me to repent.  This time, I listened and made the choice to obey, which brought me peace and made Him smile ;-).

No matter who we are, no matter where we come from, no matter if we like the idea or not, each of us makes choices every day.  Choices that determine if we follow our Lord or ourselves.

All through the Bible, we see people facing that same choice.  Adam and Eve stood on the Father’s driveway when they were faced with the decision of whether or not to eat the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden.  They said, “NAH!”, ate the fruit, and trotted on down the driveway, following their own plan.  And we’ve paid for it ever since.

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood on His driveway while they were in captivity.  When God called them, they came.  He was faithful, they were saved, and He was lifted high.

David knew he was loved by God; but when he stood on the driveway on the rooftop of his castle looking down at Bathsheba, he said, “NAH! I want to do what I want to do!”  And he started a chain of events that led to death and disaster.

And Jesus Himself, even though He WAS God, stood on the Father’s driveway when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Hallelujah, Jesus chose to obey God’s call, making a way of forgiveness and salvation for all who will respond to HIS call.

Each of us stands on that heavenly driveway, and God calls us to come to Him.  Sometimes we don’t even pause—we just go our own way.  But sometimes we pause and look back, wheels turning in our minds as we think:  “Do I want to go to Him or not?  Do I choose to follow my own plan and do what I want to do, or do I choose to obey?”

If Sandy had returned to us, she would have been patted and hugged and loved and given a treat.  But she missed that because she was determined to do things her way.  When we choose to obediently respond to our Father, our reward is MUCH greater than Sandy’s would have been!  The Father welcomes us with arms of love opened wide and says:

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” (Matthew 25:23)