Dogs

[bpayton]

as a veteran, I'm very familiar with the sheepdog analogy Dr. Laniak mentions in his entry on dogs. As well, I am known by my wife and others as the Dog Whisperer: I've never met a dog I didn't like, and the vast majority of them have like me as well! I'm an animal person, and it's a running joke around the house that I like most animals, and certainly all dogs, more than I do most people. Dogs are incredibly trusting and loyal to the people who've proven themselves worthy.
Still, I'm also familiar with how dogs are seen by other people. There are gentlemen in my neighborhood who go for their morning walks with a golf club, just in case they cross the path of a dog. In the many foreign places I've been, especially anywhere in the MidEast or Asia, dogs are seen as one of the lowest forms of life...useful for some purposes but not to be tolerated otherwise.
I'm often annoyed when my two pet dogs, a Golden Retriever and an Aussie Shepherd, bark at the mailman I've already heard at the front door, the pizza guy I've been expecting for the last 29 minutes, or the squirrel teasing them through the window. They bark at the wind. worse, my retriever whines and tries to hide under my feet when a storm is about to come. I am, however, appreciative when I am camping in the wilderness, far from civilization, and my Aussie's hair stands on end and he starts the low growl that lets me know someone or something unknown is approaching my campsite in the dark.
So, I enjoy the analogy of the sheepdog shared in the chapter: ignore the warning at our own peril, and also, be careful that when we are doing the warning, that we "bark" when necessary, so the bark doesn't lose its power.
today, there are so very many things to bark about: BLM, Antifa, COVID restrictions that don't make sense, children and teenagers who've so completely bought into progressive ideologies that they reject the truth...the list goes on. I wonder when to bark and when to stay silent and persevere. not everything really is a danger, but enough of it is that we need to be speaking the truth about these things in our churches and amongst the other people we are sharing life with. I fear the church is sliding closer and closer to heresy, even apostasy, with all the secular practices and "truths" the church remains silent on, or worse, incorporates. the church must be love AND truth, salt AND light, even when its not popular.
but, just like people despise dogs for eating their own vomit, people despite Christians for acting and sounding like hypocrites. Guard the flock, and bark wisely!
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Bill Payton