Learning Life lessons with Dogs

Look, I graduated!!! :-) This was the only picture I had with both of the dogs in it, and it also proves the point that I'm trying to make. You know what's fun about this picture? Lindy was trying to kiss my face, but she didn't do it because I graduated. She would have done the same thing reguardless of what I was wearing, what I accomplished, etc. She did it because she loves me. (Lindy is the white one, Binks is the black one)

When I went off to college, they cried every time I came home. I had been playing fetch with them every day during my 4 years of High School, and I do every time I come home. Now during the summer, it's almost twice a day! The routine is Binks plays with me, and Lindy just sits next to me. She brings me sticks, eats grass, or sometimes just sits and stares at me while I pet her. Binks and I have been close ever since we got him as a puppy. I would play with him before and after school. I could rough-house with him and also just put my arm around him and talk to him as if he were an old bud. He wags when I come close to him still, and I know just the right spot where he itches.

I came home tonight thinking to myself, "I worry way too much. Why do I worry? God makes it all work out, he's never failed me, and Jesus even told us not to worry about today. So why do I do it?" As I parked my car feeling frustrated, out came Lindy to the front lawn. She wagged her tail, got a big smile on her face, and was just excited to see me. I was only gone for like 4-5 hours, but it didn't matter! I went to pet Binks, and he looked up from his nap, wagging his tail and when I would reach to pet him, he would put his arm around mine so that my hand would touch his head as he laid back down.

It came to me. They love me because I'm Scott. I don't have to be perfect, I don't have to have it all figured out, they like me because I'm me. I then got to thinking...that's how it is with God, isn't it? At the end of the day when we come to him, he is just happy to see us. He loves us because of who we are.

God works in mysterious ways. After all, he just used a couple of mutts to teach me about his love.

There is a God, and I am not him.

One of the most honest and profound quotes I have heard recently, came from the Movie Rudy. In this movie, the main character asks a priest for some advice. Rudy is concerned he is not praying hard enough and that everything that he is working for amounts to nothing. The priest looks at him and says, "In all my years of ministry, I have learned two things. There is a God, and I am not him."

There is a God, and I am not him. After all those years of ministry, that is all he learned? Why didn't he tell Rudy the stories of the great men of the Bible, quoted some of his own sermons, quote scripture, etc. Why did he just say those two phrases? When I sat down and thought about it, what he said is probably the greatest advice anyone could give. There is a God, and I am not him.

Even if you take the two phrases separately, they are two of the most amazing phrases you can utter. By admitting there is a God, you realize there is a power above yourself. In a society where the teaching is that it's all about us and how to fulfill ourselves, it takes a person of great wisdom and humility to admit that there is something greater. That leads to knowing that you are not God. We make ourselves to be of great importance with our superiority over intellect and life, and we get prideful. Yet if we let our Pride get to ourselves, God will answer us like he answered Job. "Where you there when the earth was created? Did you cause the rain to fall?" It's like us creating an ant farm and the ants going, "Hey, look at what we did! Obviously this was our doing! We can lift really heavy objects, we are very attractive, smart....Why....We are amazing!" To us it seems silly because we could crush them all with one blow and we are ultimately superior. Yet...Isn't that how God sees us? Yet he loves us anyway?

I picked the hardest New Years resolution this year. To be less selfish. This may have to be my resolution next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. What I do know is one thing. There is a God, and I am not him.

I love to laugh.....HA HA HA HA HA!

I don't know why people think God doesn't have a sense of humor. I think he has one. I think that he had a good joke with ole' Scott this week. For instance a couple things I prayed before I went to camp included issues concerning patience and whether or not teaching is the career I want to go into. To answer the question of Patience, I was a cabin leader for NINE SEVENTH GRADE BOYS!!!! What did I have to be patient about? Things that broke in our cabin include a screen door, a lamp, and light fixtures. The first night my cabin got talking to by all three ministers. One of those ministers had to talk to our cabin over 3-4 times the whole week! I would say that my patience definitely got tested. Now, what about teaching? I co-led both a small group after Worship AND our Family Group in the mornings. I found out that I enjoy talking, and I am pretty good at answering questions and getting a point across. Nice stuff, huh?

Despite all of this, the week was pretty cool. Three boys from Tom and I's cabin accepted Christ or made a decision to Re-dedicate their lives! There were some issues of obedience later that night...But we are all still proud of all of them. I feel that this whole week was a great experience, and we all learned a lot. It was really weird because I was an adult leader and just a year ago I was a student. I think I've matured enough where I could be considered an adult. Huzzah for Maturity!

The reasons the guys in my cabin think I am cool include: My Beautiful Hair, My impression of the Lollipop Guild from Wizard of Oz, the shortness of my Family, and saying all 50 states in under 20 seconds. They apparently video taped me doing the Munchkin song and they said that they were going to put it on You Tube and their Myspace accounts...So I may be famous! Well, I better be going. Have a great rest of the day!