Dogs Will Be Dogs

I love my old dog.  We got her as a pup almost 11 years ago.  Now she has arthritis, is overweight, has battled cancer, and is almost deaf.  She still enjoys going for rides and barking at squirrels, but now she does it at a much slower pace.  She has basically raised our children and thinks of herself as one of the family.  She loves to go pick the kids up from school, loves to sleep by my bed (or under my desk during the day), she knows when it is time for the kids to come home, and she gets upset when one of them spends the night away.  We think of her as part of the family, too.

Sometimes we forget, but she is still a dog.  The other day I let her go to the dumpster with me (another of her favorite past times).  Usually she trots alongside, sniffing constantly to see who has been around.  But not that day.  That day she took off out of the gate like a shot and ran straight to the neighbors.  She stopped just outside the chain of the neighbor's Rottweiler, turned, and marked her spot.  Then as the other dog was sniffing that spot, she ran inside the chain and did it again, right in the middle of the other dog's territory.  I ran over there yelling for her to come.  I would like to think she did not hear me but I am afraid she chose not to in this instance.  Finally, brazen as can be with head held high, she trotted back over to me with a smug look of satisfaction on her little doggy face.

All I can say is, dogs will be dogs.

Jeremiah uses the example of a leopard's inability to change its spots to illustrate the inability of the Jews to change their ways (Jeremiah 13:23).  Peter uses the illustration of a dog turning to its vomit and a clean pig rolling in the mud to show how some will turn from the truth and go back to their old sinful ways (2 Peter 2:20-22).  It is very frustrating when people take these passages and try to justify sinfulness, rebellion, or worldliness.  They try to make you think that they just can't help it, that they were born that way, or even that they weren't ever saved to begin with!

Here's the problem with that.  You aren't a dog.  If you are a Christian, you are not even that old person any longer.  Paul speaks of putting to death those old things (Colossians 3:5).  He speaks of rising to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).  The old man is gone.  Long live the new man (Colossians 3:10)!  You have been given the choice.  Too many today want to hang on to or in some cases to even resurrect that old man. However, you have got to move on and leave that old man behind.

A dog will always be a dog.  You must always be you.