We went through a bag of dog treats this afternoon watching the Patriots lose their playoff game. My wife has trained our dog to instantly come when she blows a whistle. It was a fairly easy process. Each time she blows the whistle the dog gets a treat. It seemed wonderful and foolproof until this afternoon. Every time an official at the football game blew his whistle the dog came running for a treat. I couldn’t not give her something lest her training go to waste. I just love double negatives. She couldn’t tell the difference from our whistle and the whistle on television. She has limited intelligence.
She reminded me of a church member I once had who told me God told him to divorce his wife and marry another. Of course “the other” was fifteen years younger and also prettier than the original. When I asked him how he knew that’s what God wanted him to do he answered, “When I pray with ‘the other’ I feel so close to God.” Talk about limited intelligence. I’m wondering if my dog would outscore him on a Stanford-Binet.
I sometimes think it wouldn’t matter if there was no Satan to tempt us. I think we do a pretty good job on ourselves. It is so obvious that we hear and see what we want to hear and see. We rationalize to get what we want. It is so difficult to be honest with ourselves. If we could only steel ourselves to do what God directs us to do in Scripture, we would not go wrong. We would hear the right whistle and ultimately get the right reward – eternal life.
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 17,2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org