Dogs are having their day.
As Americans shelter in place, pets have become even more
beloved and essential for many. But not all pets are beloved in the same way.
The American Kennel Club is announcing today that for the record-extending twenty-ninth year, Labrador retrievers remain our most popular purebreds. Golden retrievers came in second, followed by French bulldogs.
What makes labs so special?
One article offers seventeen reasons, topped by the facts that they are “intelligent and highly trainable” and they “love children.” The last reason listed might actually be first: “Labrador retrievers are adorable.”
Learning to live by grace
As with our pets, our society rewards performance and
appearance. We read reviews of the latest phones and buy the one that seems to
do what we want it to do. Employers hire people who possess the skills to do
the job they are needed to fill. It’s a system that motivates hard work and
ingenuity to the advancement of all. A rising tide lifts all boats.
It’s natural to bring this same mindset into our
relationship with our Lord. For years after my salvation, I assumed that the
more I did “for” God, the more he could bless my life.
In our church, there were many such opportunities: worship
on Sunday morning after Sunday school; choir practice and Bible study that
afternoon followed by evening worship; visiting church prospects on Tuesday
night; gathering for Bible study and prayer on Wednesday night; working in our
outreach ministry and another Bible study on Saturday morning.
To be clear, no one ever stated specifically that the more
we did for God, the more he would bless us. But I made this implicit
assumption. And when bad things happened despite my religious activism, it
seemed that God didn’t keep up his end of the arrangement.
I now know that this isn’t the arrangement at all.
Scripture declares: “God shows his love for us in that while
we…
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