Three-Legged Dog

bymartycanaday

860 followers

Updated 7 years ago

Many persons start something new and bail out before they reach success. Others pursue their dream with dogged determination and refuse to let the words of others or their lack of early success cause them to end their pursuit.

J. Harold Rowland, pastor of First Baptist, Waynesboro, Georgia, and the first pastor I worked with, wrote an beautiful analogy of the church that gives me encouragement every time I read it. It goes like this . . .

"There once was a man who had a three-legged dog. It was a hound trained to run deer. The man was proud of his three-legged dog and ran him with the pack on every hunt.

I suppose the dog was unaware that he was different from other dogs. He probably didn't realize that part of his body was missing. He ran as far and as fast as all the other dogs and he got the job done, but at far greater cost in energy.

I couldn't help feeling sorry for that three-legged dog. I wondered how much better he would have been had he not lost a leg? I admired that animal, too. He didn't stay in the pen and whine piteously while dragging his hindquarters. He used what he had and did the job he had to do.

I wonder how many churches are like that three-legged dog? Paul compared the church to a body. Some of us are hands, some feet, etc. But running through the tangled forests of life some of those limbs have been caught in the steel traps of apathy, some in the snares of frantic activity, and some in the gaping jaws of sin. The loss of the limb cripples the church and parts of its ministry.

Yet the church runs on, and often, quite well. There is hidden in the heart of the church the nature to serve and worship, to preach the gospel and train our children. Sometimes I feel pity for the church as it limps bravely on with so many limbs missing or weakened.

Lots of folk will gather on the hill by the warm fire and cheer lustily as they hear the faint keening of the church on trail. Few, however, will offer the care and feeding it needs to stay in the trim. There are others who gleefully set the traps that may cost it even more pain and loss.

But when the church bursts out of the thicket in hot pursuit, leading the pack, running with all its heart, a surge of pride swells in my heart and I know that it will run with determination all the races put before her.

That's when I begin to feel sorry for the missing limbs. That's where the real tragedy is. God has always had to work with remnants, with the few chosen, with the few whose eyes see and ears hear, and hearts believe..."

Stay on the trail, folks! It takes time to be successful in any business. Don't let the nay-sayers, or your own impatience lure you away from the hunt! The hunt is the secret to success!