(What a dog taught me about the Lord)
Every morning except Sunday, I walk Brenda’s dog, Cadbury. It’s a simple routine … collar on, leash attached, back door creaks open, and we set off down the driveway onto familiar streets, while Cadbury sniffs everything as though the world were newly created just for her. Most mornings, my mind wanders freely during these walks, usually talking with the Lord about whatever is going on at our church, thinking about teachings I need to prepare, or how to handle some people issues. On Tuesday morning it became fixed to an old hymn I hadn’t sung in many years: “Trust and Obey.” The words came back easily, the way childhood songs do, rising up from somewhere deep where they’d been quietly stored since my years growing up and serving in traditional churches.
“When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word;
What a glory He sheds on our way!
When we do His good will He abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.”
I found myself humming it under my breath, turning the phrase over as Cadbury tugged at the leash to routinely chase a squirrel or looking for something of interest (other dogs, neighborhood kids to play with or people walking/jogging). Then, almost without my choosing it, my thoughts shifted … from the hymn itself to the dog that walked with me. I began to wonder why some dogs cower before a person, growl, shrink back in fear, or even turn suddenly vicious, while others, like Cadbury, seem to trust nearly everyone (and even every dog) they meet.
I’ve loved dogs most of my life, and I’ve noticed this difference again and again. Cadbury is not a perfectly obedient dog … Brenda would be the first to tell you that her “alarm barking” at the delivery personnel, landscapers, yard keepers, and yes, neighborhood cats, is more enthusiasm than good manners! But what strikes me most about her definitely isn’t her obedience; it’s her trust! She greets children and elderly neighbors with a contagious eager hope — that they might play with her, pet her wavy long hair, or simply speak to her, acknowledging her existence. She has never been mistreated (her Havanese breeder treated her well) as far as I know, and I found myself wondering exactly what would happen to that trust if she had been? Would she flinch at raised hands? Would she carry some quiet wound into every future encounter, unable to fully relax even with someone kind?
I don’t know those answers with certainty, though I suspect anyone who has rescued a mistreated animal could tell you much about it. What I do know is this: her trust and treatment are tightly bound together. A creature that has known only harshness does not easily believe in gentleness, even when it’s freely and graciously offered. A creature that has known safety and care tends to extend that same confidence outwardly, again and again, almost as an automatic response.
Now, I’m being careful here, because a dog is not a moral agent the way humans are … and Cadbury’s simple, uncomplicated trust is not the same as human trust/faith. But as I watched her this morning, I couldn’t shake a deeper question that was actively forming underneath the surface … a question not about dogs, but about all of us … including me!
Do I really trust my Master enough to obey Him?
What is that old hymn really saying? Certainly, I fail to understand everything the Lord is doing and often His plans make no sense to me! However, and simply: do I trust Him?
Obedience rarely flows from full understanding. It flows from trust. Generally, one obeys the people and the truths we believe are in our best interests, even when we cannot see the whole road ahead. The psalmist knew this when he wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path!” (Psalm 119:105) It’s never a floodlight illuminating the entire journey, but a lamp, giving just enough light for each next step. Walking in that kind of light requires precise trust because the way forward isn’t always fully visible. We take the step we can see, trusting there will be light enough for the next one that’s to follow.
This is the Christian life described in Galatians 2:20,
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
The Apostle Paul isn’t describing some self-improvement program. No, he’s describing a total exchange of trust in Christ Jesus for his own understanding … his own agenda, even perhaps his own reluctant resistance, which is intentionally laid down in favor of a life lived by faith in the Son of God! This kind of surrender doesn’t just happen because every direction makes immediate sense — it happens because the One giving the command has always proven Himself trustworthy!
No one modeled this more perfectly than Jesus Himself. Throughout His life, He walked in unbroken trust of His Father, even when the assignment was excruciating. Literally! In the garden the night before His death, He prayed with raw honesty, asking if there might be another way, and then surrendered His will to that of the Father. He did not obey because the path made sense from a human perspective. Suffering rarely does. He obeyed because He trusted completely, and that trust held … even throughout His suffering and death upon the cross.
If obedience was always easy it would not require biblical faith. It’s precisely in the hard instructions, the confusing seasons of life, the assignments that one would not have chosen, that genuine trust becomes truly visible and applicable.
And then there’s Jonah, our God’s reluctant prophet, given a plain and simple command: go to Nineveh. Jonah didn’t obey, not because he misunderstood the instruction, but because he didn’t trust God’s purposes behind it all. He disagreed with the plan. He didn’t want mercy extended to that particular people group whom he considered enemies — so he ran the opposite direction, boarding a ship bound for Tarshish as though he could outrun the will, the power, and presence of the Lord.
How often do we do the very same thing? Maybe not so dramatically, but we still resist all the same. We hear a clear message, direction, truth, or word from the Lord, and instead of trusting Him enough to obey, we negotiate, delay, or perhaps, simply turn and walk away … convinced we know better in our unwillingness to trust that His plan is surely superior! (See Proverbs 16)
Jonah’s rebellion led him into the belly of a great fish, three days in complete darkness, cut off from everything, where he was brought low enough to finally pray, then surrender, and ultimately trust the Lord enough to obey. That’s a strange kind of severe mercy … not comfortable and not gentle by any human measure, but still mercy from a merciful God. Undoubtedly exactly the correction Jonah needed to be brought back into alignment with God’s perfect will from which he had been running.
I wonder, how many of us need our own big fish event … stripped of comfort and control? When and how do we get to a place where we finally “trust and obey?” I know I’ve had my own seasons of resistance, but the faithfulness of Christ and the Truth of His Word never let me escape. Again and again, throughout both the Old and New Testaments, the message of trusting and believing by faith results in obedience. These actions are inseparable. God calls His people to trust Him, and that trust ultimately produces obedience! Not as fearful compliance, but obedience as the spiritual fruit / byproduct of confidence in our great, gracious, loving, merciful, and faithful God!
So here is where my morning walk with Cadbury left me, leash in hand, hymn still playing quietly in my head … TRUST SHAPES BEHAVIOR. While it works to shape the way Brenda’s pet responds to others, far more significantly it outlines the way a true believer in Jesus, as Lord, responds to Him and His Word / Truth. Will His direction for one’s life always make sense to us in the moment? Rarely! However, the vital question is whether one trusts the Master, who provides light for our walk, enough to take the next step … and then trust the fact that He will provide light enough for the next step and the step after that. (see John 8:12)
Perhaps today all of us should ask:
1. Do I trust the Lord enough to simply obey Him?
2. Is His Word truly a lamp to my feet, even when I cannot see the whole road ahead?
3. Am I willing to trust Him through seasons that feel like darkness, or am I prone to be like Jonah, running the opposite way?
“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”
1 Samuel 15:22
Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143:7
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
Brothers and sisters, now is the time to “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2)
His & Yours,
PF
NOTES:
In the biblical text, the Hebrew and Greek words for “trust” appear roughly 140 times (NASB 1995), and if we add some equivalent words translated in English as “faith,” “belief / believe”, or “confidence,” the total number of specific references increases significantly.
The exact word “obey” appears 74 times in the New American Standard Bible. When counting related word forms or general occurrences, depending on the specific search criteria, the underlying Old Testament Hebrew root occurs over 1,000 times alone.
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