[column width=”1/6″ title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]

[/column]

[column width=”2/3″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]

Jen is an amazing minister and skilled d.i.y.-er. When she’s not mentoring college students with Chi Alpha she enjoys discovering adorable coffee places and taking selfies with her family.

Recently my family rescued a dog from the local shelter. After several days of waiting and looking, we found our Ruby.

She was a sweet black Lab mix, 9 months old, and seemingly very mild-mannered. We brought her home and for the first week she was silent, meek, and just happy to be out of that shelter.

As we got used to each other, her defenses came down. She was still a sweet dog, but there were some behaviors that started to concern us. On walks she would walk ahead of me until she saw another dog, a person or, heaven forbid, a squirrel, and then she would almost pull me over. She developed a habit of barking at me. Most of the time I couldn’t figure out what she wanted and it would happen several times a day. I felt like she was bossing me around. She ignored me when I called her, unless I had a treat. She had even developed a bit of an aggressive streak towards other dogs when she was on leash.

My husband and I had talked about obedience classes early on, but with the busyness of fall and then the holidays, it fell to the bottom of our priority list. Finally, this past week, we started our first class.

 New Kid in Class

When we got there, she was pulling on the leash, whining and barking, and generally out of control.

The teacher of the class came in and said, “Oh, we obviously have a new member of the class.” Cue dog-owner embarrassment. She took us over to a desk where she pulled out something called a “Gentle Leader.” It is a head harness consisting of a strap that goes around the nose of the dog and then around her head. It only tightens if the dog strains against it, but it gives the owner control.

As the teacher unhooked the leash from the halter and attached it to the ring of the Gentle Leader, she warned us that Ruby might throw a little temper tantrum. She thrashed around a bit and tried to get it off, to no avail. When class started a few minutes later, that thin nylon strap began to accomplish some astonishing things. Suddenly Ruby was controllable. She was not bossing me around but was listening for my commands.

Even when we took her home, and throughout the next day, whether or not she was wearing the head harness, she was different. Some of those concerning behaviors we had been dealing with were disappearing. She was a dream to take on walks, even in the presence of squirrels. Who knew it could be so simple?

What a concept! That this one act of controlling Ruby’s head for short periods of time throughout the day made her more respectful of us all the time. She recognized our authority.

It reminds me of a term taught to me by a co-worker at a horse camp I worked at as a teenager: horses who allow people to touch their face or work around their head are “humbled.”

It seems to me that Ruby has been humbled a bit.

The book of James mentions this process in 3:3, “We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth.” He continues to a broader point, saying that if we can take control of a small thing (our tongues), we are more successful at controlling the behaviors and attitudes that are destructive to us and those around us.

I can identify with Ruby – there are many times when my behavior is not obedient to my Master. I ignore His calls to come, to sit, to follow. I make demands. I don’t respect His words.

 What James has to Say

James tells us that this undisciplined nature doesn’t just hurt us, but actually makes us enemies of God. He talks about selfishness, doing what we want to do, and the destruction it causes. And then he says,

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? …You do not have because you do not ask God.When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures… don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

‘God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.’

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

I know from experience this is true. Yes, I have plenty of experience with ignoring Him. But I’ve also had times, by His grace, that I have responded with putting aside my own desires in order to obey Him. The result often changed my life, or someone’s close to me. What if I had done it every time?

I want to humble myself daily, hourly, not just occasionally. To willingly invite the true Gentle Leader, the Holy Spirit, to have control of my head, so that my heart and attitudes will follow. This is the essence of living dead. May He give me more grace.

[/column]