Once I read where a pastor said that the best prayer he ever heard was: “Dear God, please make me into the kind of person that my dog thinks that I am.”
I don’t know about you, but that about sums up my desire also. Most of you know that I have a big St. Bernard named, Huge. He’s now a big old slobbery mouthed dog. When he was a pup and I would come home from work at the end of the day, that dog would turn into a 150-pound toy poodle, wagging his tale, spinning in circles, wiggling his rear end. He’d do a doggy tap-dance for joy—all just because of me.
Now, he lifts his old head, gives his tail a little wag and says to me, “Glad your home, dude. Cool.”
Actually coming home to my house is particularly great, not only because of Huge, but my kids always shout out my name, "Hi Dad!" Even my junior higher son likes to see me! And my younger daughter runs to me, mugging me with love. I have to tell you friends, that a lot of my motivation in life is being the kind of person that my dog thinks I am, the kind of person who my kids will both respect and love to be around, the kind of person that I see reflected in my wife eyes when we see each other at the end fo the day.
The truth is that I really want to be a good person. Wouldn’t you say the same?
The truth is that I want to become the kind of person that my God has made me to be. God has not made us to be religious perfectionists, doing everything “technically” correct. He has made us to to be like him. That deep desire in our hearts to be good is actually to be good-like-God good, inside and out.
Some of us may have to admit that we are, at heart, Pharisees. Sure we never murder, we are not unfaithful to our spouses, we don’t technically lie to anyone, we may even be good moral people, but unless we live out the Kingdom righteousness that comes from a Kingdom heart and leads us to be transformed into the very likeness of God—then we are not living as God’s people.
So here is my charge and challenge to you: Don’t do good, be God’s.
This is the secret of the Kingdom: The only way to be truly good—good like God, good—Kingdom-transformed good—is not to focus on being good, it is to focus on belonging to God. In every part of your being giving more and more over to the one who will make you more and more like him.
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