Love and Devotion to the Lord

Sam’s Third Spiritual Lesson

Love and Devotion to the Lord

Love is defined as a feeling of intense affection and warmth toward someone or something. Devotion is defined as a strong feeling of duty or loyalty to a cause.

Years ago I was waiting for an overseas flight from Chicago to England. I was deep in thought at what was before me; the presentation of a research paper that I had written at a scholars forum at Oxford University. I was feeling a little anxious about that event, but was drawn back to the current airport situation by hunger. I stood up to search for a quick meal in the terminal, then noticed a middle-aged businessman seating himself across from me.

As I gathered my things, the man got comfortable and he spied a pamphlet that someone had left on an adjoining seat. He picked it up and looked it over as I also did covertly. I could see it was a Christian brochure explaining how one could be saved. The well-dressed traveler read the document carefully and knitted his brows. He replaced the paper on the seat beside him and glanced up. Our eyes met and I smiled and nodded a greeting, which he returned. 

The Spirit pricked my consciousness and urged me to start a conversation. However, I was tired, hungry, and had my own stressors. He looked down and turned his attention to the contents of the briefcase. I felt relieved and considered this an appropriate time to exit.

I found a McDonalds and ordered, but my mind kept going back to the man who was evidently puzzled by the pamphlet. Then a strange thought intruded into my thoughts. I suddenly recalled a memory with Sam, my mixed lab.

A couple of years prior to this current trip, I had been checking the fence rows on our farm for breaks. It was a hot August day and Sam, as usual, was scouting the surrounding area as I walked. He would range into the woods or over the fields out of sight, but he would return periodically to check on me.

We arrived at a point where the barn and pond were in sight. He trotted close to me and glanced toward my face. I read his thoughts. “Go ahead, swim!” With that permission he sped off to the beckoning waters of the pond a quarter mile away.

I smiled as I watched him race off. Suddenly, I felt an intense pain in my chest, so much so that it brought me to my knees in the middle of the hayfield. I had bypass surgery two years previous, and it had seemed to be successful since I had no other issues until that day. I was flooded with excruciating pain and shortness of breath and felt very much alone. No one was aware of my whereabouts, including my wife, Jeanette. Cell phone service was nonexistent.

I looked up at the sun and things blurred, but I was cognizant of three black buzzards circling overhead. I saw some macabre humor in my situation and thought: I have survived near drownings, motorcycle wrecks, falls, a gunshot wound, assaults as a cop, and heart surgeries, but now I am going to become dinner for nature’s arial sanitation crew.

I lowered my eyes from the sky and saw Sam as I simultaneously called upon the   Lord. Sam had stopped his race to the pond. Maybe it was the fact that I was on my knees, but he seemed to sense something was wrong as he stood and stared at me. He paused a few seconds and then loped back toward me. He shoved his own head under my bowed head and licked my chin. I jerked upward and stared into brown eyes. I could see concern. 

The pain passed and I struggled to my feet. “I’m all right, Sam. You go swim.” However, he would not leave me. He walked slowly alongside me, frequently looking into my face. His desire to plunge into the pond was gone. 

He stayed by my side and focused his attention fully on me as we returned home. Even that night he would not eat until he was satisfied the danger to me was over. A week later I received a stent to regain blood flow.

The memory of Sam, a dog forgoing his pleasure of a swim, a cool drink, and eating, because of his love and devotion to me, flooded my mind. I realized I did not do the same for the businessman in this airport. The love for my Master should have prompted me to my duty to Him to witness to the traveler. The lesson I learned from Sam, was love and duty for the Lord takes precedence over my self-centeredness. I made a promise then and there at that terminal, that I never again would neglect the prompting of the Holy Spirit to share the Lord. In the years that have passed, I so far have adhered to that commitment. 

Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”. Mathew 22:37 (KJV)