I’m trapped. Trapped in my own home. It’s 4:25 a.m. and I’m supposed to be at the gym, working out. I joined the local gym over a month ago and haven’t been there once since I signed up. Right after I joined, my life took a turn toward the chaotic and I just haven’t gotten up there. It’s sad, really, because up until that point, I had been working out at home an hour a day, five days a week since last June. I haven’t done that in nearly two months either. But last night, I determined I was going to go to the gym early this morning. But I can’t…because I’m trapped…
It’s the dogs, you see. We have dachshunds*. I use the plural because we have dachshunds in the plural. If you’re a true dachshund lover, you know they’re a bit like a certain brand of potato chips. You can’t have just one. But we’re a bit more plural than I’d like, thanks (anyone want a dog?). One of our precious little fur-babies isn’t so precious. Although I haven’t confirmed this with Cesar Millan, I’m positive the dog is neurotic. Among many other things, he whines. He’s not a puppy. He’s over 3 years old now. But he still whines. He whines when he goes to bed and he whines when he wants to get up. He whines the moment he thinks it’s daybreak, even if it’s 4 a.m. If someone gets up, he thinks he should be up. If I get up early and don’t get him up, guess what. He whines. This behavior wouldn’t bother me a bit except for the fact that my husband (who, for the record, does not whine) cannot operate on the same 4 to 5 hours of sleep that I do and when the dog whines, the husband wakes and the world is not as it should be.
Incidentally, the little whiner is my husband’s dog. Just want to make that perfectly clear…
Which brings me back to being trapped. I actually managed to get up this morning without the little pest whining for more than a couple of seconds. I snuck out of the bedroom, shut the door and proceeded to get dressed for the gym. Then I realized I left something I needed in the bedroom. So I took a risk and snuck back in. He whined again and as I snuck back out of the room, I heard my husband trying to get him to shut up. It seemed to work. I had my keys and was ready to walk out the door, congratulating myself on my early morning victory, when…
I realized I’d left yet another essential item in the bedroom.
To try and sneak back in again was just asking for trouble. There will be no early morning visit to the gym today. I’m trapped until 6:15 when my husband’s alarm goes off. Some days, I've literally lain in bed awake for hours in the early morning so that my husband could get the sleep he needs. I’m a huge morning person, so do you know how much I could get done if I could just get up and get going when I’ve actually had enough sleep?? But I don’t, because I’m trapped. Because of a dog…
Silly, right? How ridiculous is it that a little 12 lb. dog has come to be the master of my early morning schedule (or lack thereof)? Cesar would be ashamed of me. The truth is, the dog is controlling my behavior because I’ve allowed him to. Self-imposed imprisonment. Lame…
In the book of Galatians, Paul addresses the church there about the same kind of problem. The folks there had already received the message of grace and freedom in Jesus Christ from Paul but some other people had come in after and were pushing a message that put them back into “slavery”. These people were saying that faith in Christ was not enough and that the Galatians had to be circumcised in order to be right with God. Paul wrote the letter to call the Galatians onto the carpet about their being so willing to slip back into the same situation they’d already been delivered from.
I love how Paul puts it in chapter 3: “You foolish Galatians!” It’s even better in The Message: “You crazy Galatians!” He goes on to remind them that it wasn’t the outward acts of piety that brought them peace with God. Rather, it was by believing what they heard when Paul delivered the Gospel to them. They already had what they needed to be right with God. In effect, they were putting the shackles back on their own wrists and ankles. Self-imposed imprisonment. Lame…
We do the same thing, and not just with a silly thing like a dog. We say we believe we are saved by grace and yet we often behave as if we need to add things to that grace. Oh, they’re usually really good things, like reading the Bible, praying, attending church and helping others. Those are all things that Christians should do. But we’ve gotten it backwards. We think we do them to earn some sort of spiritual credit when in fact, we add nothing to our salvation by what WE do. We are saved because of what JESUS did. Batteries already included. No assembly required.
Paul says, in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (emphasis mine). Christ came to set us free, and He did. We are now free from the power of sin and death. Free from man-made religion that promises if we just work hard enough, we’ll earn a place in heaven. Free to leave the shackles on the floor.
I’ll shoot for the gym tomorrow…
* Pronounced “DAHKS-huunds”, not “dash-hounds” – you may have pictures of little wiener dogs “dashing” around, but it’s German, meaning “badger dog” and has nothing to do with “dashing”. And yes, I AM that Type A…
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