Tribute to Sparky

It’s been one week since our favorite pet died – Sparky was a 10-year old dachshund and all the symptoms surrounding her death point to the ingestion of rodent poison. As a Christian, there are several things that I grieve over at the loss of a beloved pet. The first is loss of companionship – both to me and to my family. Her death impacts my life – even if in just little ways – every day. I saw her every day. I took care of her every day. My youngest daughter played with her, some time for hours on end, every day. Even though she was just a dog, her death impacts my daily life.

The second thing I grieve over is how our sin – the sin of humanity – has affected all creation. The death of a pet really brings this home. She had never done anything wrong. All she ever did was what she was programmed by God to do. Usually that meant laying in the sun in our backyard, chasing squirrels with our other dog, Angel, or barking at cars or neighbors as they went down our street. She didn’t deserve to die, but the sin of humanity got in the way. Romans 8:20-22 says:

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

That was a big groan – or at least one that I could clearly hear.

The third source of my grief is closely related to the second. Sparky was not dead when we found her, but she was nearly so. This left us – largely me – with the decision to either spend hundreds, likely thousands of dollars to try to treat her, with a very low chance for survival, or to put her to sleep. It makes me almost angry to be faced with a decision like. It makes me want to scream, “It’s not fair!” And really, it’s not fair. It also wasn’t fair that Jesus Christ lived a pure and sinless life, yet carried the sin of all humanity on a cross as He died. It wasn’t fair that His Heavenly Father turned his back on Him at His greatest point of need – Not fair at all, but praise be to God, He did it anyway!

All of this makes me long for the day of Christ’s return – not in a hopeless way, but in a hope-FULL way.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" (Rev 21:3-5a)

Blog is Born

I entitled this weblog "Growing Young" based on the song of the same name by contemporary Christian artist Rich Mullins. Probably my favorite song from my favorite artist... Rich had a lot of great songs, but this is one of my favorite because it hits us right where we live. We so often think of ourselves as so much more mature than we really are. With a son now in college it has really hit me how we, as a society, have so prolonged adolescence, emphasizing the "experience" of college -- which really just serves to propagate our in-born childish and selfish behaviors, instead of teaching our young people to take on responsibility (financially and otherwise) and striving toward a life calling, instead of just living for the weekend or the next party.

The irony of it all is that Christ calls us, in the gospel of Mark, to become like little children! Ahhh, but he was not talking about our behavior; he was talking about the child-like faith He calls all those who follow him to embrace -- following Him as if there were absolutely no one else to follow. Which in fact, is the case! There is no ONE else to follow! The problem is we make for ourselves plenty of pretend "leaders", little gods with a little "g". We have tried so hard to leave our child behind that we have now grown old - well grounded in worldly wisdom, but lacking in the knowledge that grows us into the people that Christ intended us to be all along. I need to grow young -- and I need to do it every day. I need to let Christ remake me and I need to allow Him to teach me -- and teach me again -- what it means to be wise, what it means to be a man... and what it means to be a child.