Biting the Hand That Feeds You

Here's an example of an animal that is NOT welcome in the kennel.

However, some dogs can be rather gator-like in their behavior here. This weekend, friends helped me out by taking care of the dogs when I had to be gone all day. Only one dog gave them a problem. Since he growled and cowered in the back of his kennel run, he didn't get to go out. This is a rather scared dog and while he's fine with me, I wasn't surprised to hear he snarled at the strangers.

We tend to fear strangers. We rarely give people the benefit of the doubt that they are not going to harm us. Sometimes this is wise. Others, though, we miss out on the benefits of trusting someone else.

Taking risks is difficult. Jesus risked his life coming to earth and hanging out with us feeble, mean-spirited, broken people. And it seems like it didn't work out so well for him - the crowd that cheered him one week completely turned on him within days and had him crucified.

That wasn't the end of the story. Thankfully for us, that dead man got up and walked around again. And he did it for us - for our benefit - to be made acceptable to God despite our brokenness and mean-spirited selves. Following Jesus is also risky - there are no promises that our lives will be perfect if we do so. In fact, they may be very painful indeed. However, it's not the end of the story.