What Dogs Can Teach Us

 Over the years our family has included both cats and dogs that helped us raise our kids.   They became our companions. Our cats seemed willing to allow us the privilege of living with them.  Our dogs seemed grateful for the privilege of living with us. They taught us the difference between dog theology and cat theology.  

 It might sound strange, even sacrilegious to a few, but Bob Sjogren and Gerald Robison have developed whole seminars and books around “cat and dog theology.” Simply put, cats say, “You feed me, shelter me and care for me.  I must be god.”  Dogs say, “You feed me, shelter me and care for me.  You must be god.”  If you have ever had a cat and a dog you know what I mean.  Cat theology is me-centered.  “What can God do for me?” Dog theology is God centered. “What does God want me to do?”

 A tri-color corgi named Buddy was a member of our family for 14 years until dog years caught up with him in 2022.  Here are a few things I learned from Buddy.

 I need to trust God.  Whenever I got in my truck he jumped in and took his place, ready to go.  He didn’t know where we were going or what we were going to do. But if I was driving it was okay. I always want to know where we are going, when we are going to get there and what we are going to do once we arrive.  I need to jump in the truck with God and give him control of my life.

 Buddy wanted to be with me.  He didn’t care if he was at the lake running, splashing and rolling in the mud, sitting in a chair next to me on the patio or in my study lying at my feet while I write.  He just wanted to be where I was.   I need to spend time with God.  What made the early disciples different was the fact they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

 Buddy followed me.  He even followed me from room to room in the house. Whenever we went for walks on an empty beach, I let him off his leash and he ran free.  But he kept an eye on me.  He developed a radius of his own, about thirty yards from wherever I was.  Within that radius he felt comfortable sniffing washed up driftwood and marking sand dunes.  When I called his name he came running. Not real fast, but as fast as he could. After all he was a Corgi.   He reminded me of what Jesus said to His disciples, “Come, follow me!”  “My sheep know my voice.” 

 Dog years are not people years and we had to lay Buddy down, but Buddy left behind his own book, Buddy the Floppy Ear Corgi, on Amazon that tells how he was rescued off the streets and how he learned to love himself and others just the way God made them. I wrote it “just the way he told it to me.”  Since God has rescued me, I can love myself and others too, just the way He made us.

God Is Bigger Than You Think

 We like to keep God in a box.  We use different labels. Some are religious: Hindu, Buddhist, Islam, Christian, Jew.    Some are denominational: Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Pentecostal, Non-Denominational.  Some are theological. Some are philosophical.  But God is bigger than we think.  God cannot be defined or contained in any box, religious, theological, philosophical, or physical.  God is bigger than any nation, any generation, any time, any galaxy or universe. God is greater.  

 We sometimes use our God boxes to decide who can be included and who must be excluded.  Do they believe what we believe?  Can they be included in our God box? Are they one of “us?” 

 God is always blowing up our boxes.  This is the reason He sent Jesus.  He is beyond theology and religion.  John writes of Him, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.  And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it,” (John 1:1-4)

 Jesus continually blew up the God-boxes of His day. For this reason, He was taken to the Cross and crucified.  He had blown up the “God-box” of the Jewish authorities, and they would not stand for it.

 He continually did this with His own followers.  He did so when He stayed behind at the well in Samaria and conversed alone with a Samaritan woman, remaining two days and including the half-breed Samaritans in His Kingdom. 

 He did this when He responded to a Roman Centurian who sought help for his ailing servant. “Truly I have not seen so great faith in all of Israel.”  He did so when He touched and healed lepers and included tax collectors among His followers. He did so when he told the story of the Good Samaritan and redefined what it means to be “neighbor.”

 Whenever we encounter questions that we cannot answer or problems we cannot solve, we can always know that God is bigger than we think.  He is bigger than our own God-box. God is bigger than your biggest dream, greater than your greatest joy.

 The Bible gives us clues about God.  He is beyond time.  While our lifespan is approximately 78 years, He is eternal.  A thousand years in his sight is like yesterday to us, or like a single hour in the night. (Psalm 90).   He is not merely “omni.” Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is personal.  His character is best revealed in the person of Jesus.  “He that has seen me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father.”

Surprised by Oxford

 I have always loved to read. When I was a boy, I built a treehouse in the persimmon tree outside our kitchen window, a haphazard assembly of used boards that made a comfortable platform between the limbs where I sat concealed and shaded above the roofline of our house.  I spent hours in that tree reading. It was like a time machine, transporting me to distant places, past and future.  I still read constantly and enjoy a pretty wide spectrum.  I appreciate a good book.  

 A few weeks ago, a good friend, a retired physician, suggested a book he thought I should read.  On the strength of his recommendation, I downloaded a copy of Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Webber. Carolyn grew up in Canada.  Her mom raised her and her sister in a single parent home after her father’s alcoholism destroyed the marriage.  Her home life was poor, but Carolyn emerged as a particularly gifted and brilliant student.  Upon graduation she was awarded a full scholarship to study literature at Oxford University.

 She arrived in Oxford, a starry-eyed freshman with a healthy case of skeptic agnosticism. She says she grew up in a loosely European Catholic household.  The last thing she expected to discover in her studies at Oxford was faith.  She says of herself, “I had been so focused on the head that I did not see what was coming for the heart or, perhaps for all of me. … I had no real need for believing in men, God incarnate or otherwise.” 

 Years ago, my young nephew asked to meet with me.  He was in college and had chosen to study literature. He said he discovered that most great English literature makes constant references to Scripture.  He said he felt at a loss.  He had never studied the Bible and knew little about it.

 In the context of her literature studies at Oxford, Carolyn Webber began to read the Bible. She says, “I found it the most compelling piece of nonfiction I had ever read. … It unwinds and recasts the world and our perception of it: that the Holy Grail is more likely to be a wooden carpenter’s cup than the golden chalice of Kings.”

 In her book, Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Webber articulately and honestly describes the journey that led her not only to MPhil and DPhil degrees at Oxford, but to a genuine discovery of abundant faith, a faith that other Oxford scholars have known, including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

 She wrote, “To be one person one moment, lost. Then to be another person the next moment, found. It is the difference, as they say, between night and day. Outwardly, I seemed the same, but inwardly everything had changed.”

  She went on to teach Romantic Literature at Seattle University.  She also taught at Westmont College, University of San Francisco and Oxford University.  She was the first female dean of St. Peter’s College, Oxford.

 Her book won the Grace Irwin Award , the largest award for Christian writing in Canada.  Surprised by  Oxford was made into a movie and released in theaters in September 2023.

Love Never Fails

 Five years ago, Amber Guyger was found guilty of murder.  She had returned to her apartment after a long day as a Dallas police officer to find what she thought was a intruder in her home. She drew her gun and fired, killing a young black man, 26-year-old Botham Jean.  But, it wasn’t her home. The apartment she entered was one floor directly above her own and the man she killed was her neighbor, at home eating a bowl of ice cream.

 Amber, who is white, was fired from the Dallas Police force.  It took a year for the trial to work its way through the courts.  The jury unanimously found Amber Guyger guilty of murder.  She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  Many celebrated the fact that a police officer was held accountable for killing an unarmed and innocent young black man. 

 But the courtroom was stunned when the victim’s brother, Brandt Jean, asked permission to speak.  Nervously tugging at his collar, Brandt looked at Ms. Guyger and said, “I personally want the best for you. And, I wasn’t going to say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don’t even want you to go to jail.  I want the best for you. Because, that is exactly what Botham would want you to do.  And the best is to give your life to Christ.” He paused, wiped his eyes and spoke to the judge. “I don’t know if this is possible, but, can I give her a hug?” The judge consented.

 Brandt Jean met his brother’s killer in front of the judge’s bench.  He said to her, “If you are truly sorry, I know … I speak for myself, I forgive you. And I know if you go to God and ask him, He will forgive you.”  They embraced one another as they wept.

 The courtroom that a few minutes before was jubilant with vengeance fell silent except for the sound of people sobbing.  After the courtroom was cleared Guyger asked the judge, Tammy Kemp, if she thought God could forgive her.  Kemp told her, “Yes, God can forgive you and already has.” The judge then gave Guyger one of her personal Bibles.  None of this, of course, changes anything in terms of the verdict and the sentence that Amber Guyger is serving. But it changes everything in the matters of the heart. 

 Five years ago, in a Dallas courtroom the conversation changed from prejudice, vengeance, resentment and rage to acceptance, forgiveness and love. 

 Jesus said, “For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions”

 Jesus gave us the supreme example when he hung upon the Cross, lifted His eyes to heaven and prayed, "’Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23:34).

William Tinsley's Civil War Novel,  BOLD SPRINGS is FREE as an eBook on Amazon September 3-6. Click the image to the right.