Let God Be the Your Pack Leader

Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27)

When my son was young, he and I liked watching pet-training videos. Our favorite was The Dog Whisperer. It, like many of the others, emphasized the importance of establishing dominance with your pet. You can be as gentle and loving as you want with a dog, but you also have to establish that you are the pack leader.

Jakob didn't think this was fair to our dog, Midnight. "What if Midnight wants to be the pack leader?" he asked. "Why do we get to be in charge of her?"

I thought about that question for a while, and then the answer came to me. "The leader is in charge of caring for the pack," I said. "It has to know how to keep them safe. It has to know how to find food and water and shelter.

"Now, maybe if we lived in the wild, Midnight could be our pack leader, and teach us which sounds warn of danger, and which smells lead to food. But in town, this is too hard of a job for her. She doesn't understand the sounds of cars and helicopters. She doesn't know where to buy sacks of dog food. So if we let her think she is in charge, she will be constantly nervous, over-reacting to things that she isn't made to handle.

"If we teach her that we are the pack leaders, then when she hears a sound, she can look to us and know that she is safe. When she gets hungry, she can look to us and know that she will have food. She won't be nervous, like she would be if she thought that she was in charge."

God made us humans to rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals (Genesis 1:26). In many situations, we are made to be in charge. We figure out how to find safety and shelter and provision, for ourselves and for our neighbors--and even for the living creatures of our ecosystem.

But God also made us to trust and obey God. We are not always in charge. We are not big enough to handle the Big Problems of death and hatred, fear and shame, emotional safety and spiritual food. Oh, we do our best to provide a good life for the ones we love. But sooner or later we hit a situation where we are powerless. If we think we are the ones in charge, we are constantly nervous, over-reacting to things that we don't know how to handle.

That's why Jesus tells us to think a little more like the birds and the flowers, who receive their provision from God and don't worry about being in charge of the weather. He tells us to be like little children, who trust their parents and don't worry about figuring out everything for themselves. God is very loving and gentle with us, but God knows that we need someone to turn to who is in charge of our lives.

God is very loving and gentle with us, but God knows that we need someone to turn to who is in charge of our lives.

Let God be your pack leader.

Every Sunday at 10 a.m. we submit to the God and Father of our Savior Jesus. Come join us in learning to honor and obey God. And this Sunday (7/13), come early, at 9 a.m., for our free monthly breakfast!

--Jonathan