Jack Be Stupid

Our next-door neighbors have a dog named Jack.  Jack is a really tiny dog with a huge ego.  In fact, Jack thinks so highly of himself that he will come in MY driveway and bark at MY giant dog (who just looks at him, befuddled) and ME while I am merely minding my own business.  For some odd reason, Jack feels the need to express his imagined powerfulness to all those around. 

 

I find this both hilarious and amazing.  First of all,  a seven pound pooch that would berate a dog nearly 20 times its size is just plain stupid.  And secondly, this dog has absolutely no power and could be taken out quickly by one errant slip of the steering wheel.  I would never do this of course.  And thirdly, he’s on my turf, barking at my stuff, when, in actuality, he has no authority over it, at all.

Sometimes, I think this is what we look like to God. We pompously march around, acting like we are in charge here. With our tiny voices and our finite minds, we demand that God do our bidding.  We unashamedly tell the Creator of the Universe that we don’t like our situations and we think He should change them. 

Guess what?  God doesn’t have to listen to us.  He doesn’t even have to tolerate us (it would only take one errant lightning bolt), yet He does.  He puts up with our stupid, selfish, arrogant behavior because we are his children and He loves us.

Let’s choose to treat Him like the Father that He is.  Let’s choose to respect the world that He made.  Let’s choose to let Him be in charge.  And let’s quit doing all our foolish barking.

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

Romans 9:20-21