Rusty! Let it go! Drop it!
I have this big red Labrador. He tips the scales at 105 pounds
and eats anything that doesn’t eat him first. Rusty’s biggest problem is that he is a messy people
pleaser. Sound familiar? Rusty is under the illusion that I want him to bring
me shoes – anyone’s shoes will do. It doesn’t matter if they are clean or
covered in mud, he just brings me shoes. He will get a shoe or a pair of shoes
in his mouth and follow me around the house, soaking them in his slobber. (He also likes to soak Mickey Mouse in slobber... )
In that way Rusty is like a lot of us. We carry stinking stuff
around too. We carry sin, baggage, bitterness, unforgiveness, stress, pain,
worry – the junk of life. And we don’t want
to let it go. We might even act like Rusty and follow the master around but
still with the smelly mess hanging from the jaws of our soul. We can’t just let
it go! We get attached to all that mess and even let it become a part of our
identity.
But here’s the gospel. It looks like this. Rusty follows me
with his smelly mess until I tell him to sit, to rest. He does that and I put
my hand under his jaw and tell him to drop it. Rusty drops the smelly slobber
covered shoe into my formerly clean hand. But then he looks to me for the
promised replacement. And he gets it. I’m not sure what he thinks is great about
a rock hard dog bone that Purina has somehow convinced dogs is something akin
to caviar. But to Rusty, it’s the stuff of life!
Jesus says come to me. Rest. Drop your smelly slobber covered
mess into my formerly clean hands. Take instead my peace, my joy, my salvation.
Give me your mess and let me give you… me.
His hands are open – drop it.
Come to me, all who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light. Jesus in
Matthew 11:28-30
Anchored in Grace,
Harrison
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