Scamper

My first dog was a small husky-type dog named Scamper. Technically he was a German Spitz, but that sounded kind of gross for an eight year old boy, so we just called him a little husky. Scamper had two outstanding character traits. He was extremely strong for a little dog – since he was of that dog-sled breed – and he was extremely dumb! Living on an Air Force base required that pets be kept under control, so when Scamper was outside he had to be on a chain because no one had fenced-in back yards. Every time someone walked by he would run, barking, at full speed until he reached the end of his chain. Then he would be jerked to a halt with such suddenness that most of the time his feet would fly up into the air and he would land hard on his back! It never fazed him!

In fact, he broke so many chains that way that my father finally brought home a huge, heavy chain that they used to tie down planes, attached it to Scamper’s collar and said, “Try and break that!” Needless to say the chain was so heavy he could barely drag it around the yard, let alone get a running start at anyone. He was such a pathetic looking creature, moving slowly, head and neck drooped down because of the weight of what he carried, that after a month mom finally said it was enough. Scamper went back to his old antics – he never learned – and we went back to having to chase him around the neighborhood each time he broke free.

Many of the habits and character traits we learn from the world work in our lives like that heavy chain on Scamper’s neck. We drag around anger, impatience, lust and a bad attitude. We become more enslaved until we look and feel like a pathetic creature unable to break free from our bondage. Much has been proclaimed about the mercy and grace of God in sending Jesus to be the payment for our sin so that we could be free from its penalty. However, God loves us too much to just accomplish that!

He is driven by His love for us to change the very nature and character that we have learned over the years so that we can learn new life! But like Scamper, if we don’t cooperate with God’s process, we will never learn and soon find ourselves back to the old habits.

God wants His people to be changed so that they never come under bondage again!

How exciting to be His people,

Pastor David Vanderpool