I am ignorant. This is hard for me to admit. I don’t feel too bad about it though. Because you are ignorant too. If you aren’t offended yet……read on……it gets worse.
Cindy and I have a dog. He is a fabulous dog. Several people have asked, “When you die…….can I have your dog?” We love our dog and I am absolutely sure that he loves us. Here’s the thing……our dog, Jet, is ignorant too. He is even more ignorant than I am. Compared to us, he doesn’t understand very much. He knows our routine. He knows his jobs. He understands 20 or 30 words. He is a Labrador and he tries very hard to please us. But, the simple truth is that he operates on an entirely different intellectual plane than we do. In a way…….he is childlike. We sent him to obedience school where he learned about authority. Cindy and I are in charge. He has to do what we say. He doesn’t get to pass judgement on our decisions. He trusts that we will care for him, feed him, and shelter him. When we go for a walk, he follows our lead. He doesn’t drag us down the road because he respects our authority. He trusts that we know better than he does where we are going……..where he is going.
If you think about it, Jet is a metaphor for you and me…..in our relationship with God. We don’t have a clue about God’s long range plan. God does things with us and to us. Some of them we like……others, not so much. But, we must recognize that we are ignorant, we are powerless, and we have very little authority. Those things belong to God.
I see a lot of people making plans, building empires, telling us all how it is going to be. But, the simple truth is that we are like dogs on a leash. Our handler, God, is taking us along on his long term odyssey. If we are going where God is going, there is harmony. Everything is OK. But many of us, possibly most of us, are going somewhere other than where God is going. We are like the dog you see trying to drag his owner down the street. And that is a formula for chaos. That is the source of the growing chaos in our culture.
So, the lesson is this:
Accept your ignorance.
Accept your limited power.
Accept your limited authority.
Ascribe that knowledge, power, and authority to God…..where it belongs
Learn to live……to thrive……on your leash.
Heel.
Because the guy holding the leash loves you, is not ignorant, and is going somewhere very good.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Matthew 28: 18, ESV
I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
God, Isaiah 45: 7, ESV
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’?
God, Isaiah 45: 9, ESV