It’s Never Too Late!
When our dog, Dudley, was a puppy, we taught him many tricks, like sit, shake, lay down, roll over and even pray…yes, he would cross his paws, while laying down, and we’d place a treat in front of him, telling him to wait. We’d pray over the treat and then say Amen, which was his cue to eat the treat. If we held out to say amen, he’d wait, and wait, and wait…which always impressed his audience. Now, whether it’s old age or laziness, if we ask him to do his tricks, he does them all at once! Quickly and almost animated, he’ll sit, slide into ‘lay down,’ roll over and while coming back over, crosses his paws as he scoots on his belly closer to the treat! The one thing he really still does well is wait…not sure why, but he does.
Recently, while playing with him, I asked him to wait as I threw his favorite squeaky toy down the hall, mainly becomes sometimes he gets down the hall before the toy lands and it bops him on the head…which he doesn’t seem to mind! When I said “wait,” he stopped and looked at me; I threw the toy and said “okay,” and he took off after it. I started wondering if it was possible to untrain him and retrain him, even though he’s 11 years old. I thought of the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” and as I did, the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart that we are never too old to learn from our Master.
Maybe for Dudley it’s too late, but as children of God, it is NEVER too late to relearn life lessons, to be taught new ways to think, act, and speak. When a puppy is being trained, the handler must build a trust relationship with the dog, usually with treats and praise, so that the puppy will obey his master with confidence. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, at any age, we begin a trust relationship with Him, giving Him control to “train” us…to shape us into the people God created us to be. It’s not easy, but the more consistent we are with our training, the easier and more natural it becomes to please our Master.
Many people live a full life, making many mistakes along the way and think they are too messed up for God to even look their way or that they are too old to learn anything new. Joel 2:12-13 (CEV) “The Lord said, ‘It isn't too late. You can still return to Me with all your heart. Start crying and mourning…turn back to Me with broken hearts. I am merciful, kind, and caring…and I don't like to punish.” Whether it’s guilt or shame, age or addiction that keeps us from Jesus…those are all labels we attach to ourselves, with the help of Satan. Jesus died on the cross for all of it, so whatever we think badly of ourselves is all on us. He loves us, He wants us and He is waiting for us to realize that it’s NEVER too late to come to Him and for Him to restore our purpose.