Oh my goodness, I love that dog! Remember Shenandoah, our worst-best dog? She’s so funny, as in odd, peculiar. She’s your typical lab – high energy, family oriented, cute as can be. She also loves water. Well, sort of. Labs are retrievers, that’s why they make good hunting dogs. Their ancient ancestors were the St. John’s Water Dog. No wonder she likes water. Well, sort of.
Down our neighbor’s way is a creek or for some of us it’s a crick. Shenandoah loves the creek. She high steps in with those big webbed feet biting at the water those big feet splash into the air. She puts her nose down into the water and when she’s not eating whatever is growing down there (ew!), she throws the water up in the air with her nose. She leaves that creek with a smile on her face, no kidding. She comes home and dramatically throws her body on the floor with a huge sigh – exhaustion. That’s how you know a lab is happy, when they’re exhausted! That’s when we’re really happy too, when she’s exhausted!
Everyone in this neck of the woods knows that we’ve had an unusually rainy summer – understatement. It seems to have been a daily deluge for weeks on end. That’s exaggerating a bit. Well, sort of. Anyway. We have had a great deal of rain. When you have a dog, it doesn’t matter how much rain you have, they need exercise and they need potty breaks.
I went home from work one day at lunchtime to take her out. It was raining. I hook her up to her collar and her leash (we call them necklaces, that sounds much nicer), and go to walk out the door. Stop. She stands at the door but will not budge. She looks at the rain and looks at me. She said “You’re crazy if you think I’m going out in that.” Yes, she talks. She even tried to go lay down on her bed. We had us a little tug-of-war. I won but it was touch and go for a minute. Our peculiar puppy (Labs are always puppies) did not want to get wet. Our St. John’s Water Dog descendant didn’t want to do what she was bred to do, get wet. She wants to get in the water but she doesn’t want to get wet. She wants the reward, the fun, but doesn’t want to do what she has to do to get the reward, get wet. Go figure.
If I think on that, I might be more like my dog than I care to admit. I wondered, do we ever want the crown without going through the cross? Wouldn’t we like to get into the cool, refreshing creek and splash around, but not get wet? Wouldn’t we like the crown without having to pick up the cross? Maybe. Daily dying to self, like going out into the rain, can be annoying, I mean the world’s a pretty cool place to live in, right? Why can’t we just cut to the crown? Because we just can’t. We can’t get in the creek without getting wet. We can’t get the Crown of Life unless we train for and run the race, just as Jesus did. Laying down our cross, denying self, takes training.
We learn so much from Paul. He says:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
1 Corinthians 9:24-25
Competition was everything to the Corinthians. Similar to our Olympics, the Isthmian Games were held in Corinth and participants came from all over the Greek world. These games tested participants in horse racing, music and arts, and various athletic contests. And, of course, the winner got a prize – a crown of pine. Ooh, aah. The prize later changed to a crown of celery. Ooh, aah, yum. Anyway, the Corinthians were very familiar with competitions and they would have understood Paul.
Do I want the prize without training and participating in the race? Do I just want to cut to the chase and show up at the finish line and have the Crown of Life plopped on my head? Do I just want the crown without going through the work of the cross? You see, the cross is work. Why? Because it is the Cross of Christ. He died on that cross for our sins. In order to get the Crown of Life we must go through that cross. We must acknowledge our sin, repent of our sin, turn from our sin, pick up our cross and follow Him. We have to get wet.
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23
By training, shouldering our cross daily, He tells us we will have trials, but He also tells us of our reward.
This is a message from the one who is the First and the Last, who died and is alive:
Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The Devil will throw some of you into prison and put you to the test. You will be persecuted for ten days. Remain faithful even when facing death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelations 2:8-10
If we acknowledge Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross and what he died for – our sins — repent of those sins and allow ourselves to be changed by Him. If we are disciplined followers and run the race of faithfulness to the end, daily picking up our cross and dying to self, we will win a crown that will last forever. Not a crown of pine or celery, but the Crown of Life!
Well put.