As I walked through the door one evening this week, one of my sons ran up to me and said, “Dad, guess what Daisy did?” Daisy is our Black Lab and probably the sweetest and dumbest dog on the planet! My son went on to tell me that he caught Daisy walking around the back yard with a bunny in her mouth. Well, at least the body of the bunny, the head was gone and from the looks of our flower bed it looked like Daisy had already given it a proper burial.
I pulled Daisy aside and sat her down and said, “Daisy girl”, that’s what I call her, “what did you go and kill a poor innocent bunny for?” With her tail wagging and her tongue hanging out, I heard this voice, “She’s just doing what comes naturally!” It was my son explaining to me that that’s just what Lab’s do and she was doing what she was born to do.
That little incident got me thinking. At the end of my day, when the Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit) talk about me and recall something that I did that day, what do they say? I wonder if the Lord ever says, “Mark is just doing what comes naturally.” I hope He says that less and less about me as the years go by because from what Scripture teaches and experience shows, the things that come naturally to me are not good. As Galatians 5:16-21 says, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
God’s desire for us is that we would not live lives of “doing what comes naturally”, rather that we would live lives doing what comes “supernaturally” empowered and controlled by His Spirit.
When this happens, we look more like Him then we do like our “natural selves”. This is what He desires to see and what the world should see when they see us. Verse 22 of Galatians 5 sums it up: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Daisy could take pride in doing what came naturally, but we should be thankful and praise God when we are able to, through His Spirit to do what comes supernaturally. May it be so.
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