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2007

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Toby the SuperDog

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Small but deadly

2^nd April

Good day to you!

Yes, once again I am writing about my dog - I'm obsessed I know! I promise I'll not mention him again for a week or two.

Hope that you have a great Holy week and Easter - looking forward to eating crisps again - yay! ________________________________________________________

Due to the fact that I now have a dog, I have been going on lots of walks (with the dog obviously!). On these walks I meet a variety of people – those out for a stroll, those out spotting birds (identifiable by the binoculars and geeky look about them!), those out cycling and of course those out walking their dogs. Despite the variety of people I meet, they all basically fall into 2 categories…..the nice and the nasty. Ok, nasty is perhaps too strong, but moody and unpleasant doesn’t sound as catchy! 

Toby (my lovely canine companion) is a very friendly dog and he likes to approach people with a cheery bound and a sloppy lick. Not everyone is pleased by this. He is also very friendly and playful to other dogs and again, not all dogs appreciate his joviality. So when we are out and about I try and make sure that if I see other people or their dogs in the distance, to put Toby back on the lead. This prevents any bad feeling or obsessive licking, and everyone is happy. Unfortunately not all dog owners are as considerate.  

So there I was the other day walking in the fields with friendly Toby, when along comes a German shepherd and it’s owner. Seeing the potential danger I put Toby on the lead and proceeded to walk on by without incident – the two dogs shared a sniff and went on their ways. Not long after I saw 2 sausages dogs off their leads in the distance. Seeing the pathetic little mutts (anything small enough to step on isn’t really a dog!) I wasn’t overly worried, except perhaps for them – an excited Toby is likely to squish smaller animals without realising. They turned and saw Toby and I approach and immediately ran over to us. I could not believe what happened next…. 

….these tiny sausage dogs bared their tiny teeth and proceeded to attack my lovely Dalmatian. They ran around him in circles biting his legs and tail and then jumping up to attack his belly. I’m there desperately trying to pull Toby away when these evil dogs’ owner sauntered over and stood watching as my lovely dog was brutally bullied. He didn’t seem to care at all, and I was furious that he did nothing to get his vicious mutts off – maybe he valued his own limbs too much to even try?! I think what got me most was that I hadn’t seen it coming, I hadn’t expected my large dog to be attacked by two tiny terrors.  

I reckon sin is a bit like that. We can often see the big sins, the murdering, the stealing, the physical violence, the illegal stuff, and so avoid them. It doesn’t even enter our head often, as these things are deemed so wrong – we can often feel really good about ourselves as we would never do such heinous things. Then there are the things which are our own personal weaknesses, the things we know that we struggle with, the things we have to actively watch out for. When we see these coming on the horizon we can have action plans to help us not get into tempting situations. Then there are those small, insignificant sins which we barely notice. Driving over the speed limit, one too many alcoholic beverages, a quick gossip, not being entirely honest, bitching about others behind their backs, not speaking up when undercharged and so on and so forth. At the time they seem like nothing major, nothing worth worrying about – ‘it’s harmless’ or ‘no-one will ever know’ or perhaps ‘everyone does it’

The fact is that these tiny sins, these small mistakes, are vicious and incredibly destructive, mostly because we don’t even realise that we are doing them. Yet they are damaging us, in small yet evil bites, destroying our relationship with God and with others. They are taking us further away from who we are called to be, who we were made to be. They are sins. Jesus died for our sins – that would be all of us sinners, not just the big bad murdering and stealing type sinners, but also for us who are so complacent that we don’t even realise we are messing up big style.  

So this week as you approach Easter I would urge you to spend time admitting to all sins great and small, and to ask Jesus to show you areas of weakness so you can prepare against future sins. By recognising the things we do wrong we can try to avoid repeat offending – we will never be perfect, but we should always be striving for it.

Oh and watch out for the small dogs – they’re truly evil!