by Steve
I hope that most of you have read Jack London’s masterpiece, The Call of the Wild. It is the story of a magnificent dog named Buck. Buck was half St. Bernard, half German Shepherd, 150 pounds of pure muscle. Because of his great size and strength, he was stolen, kidnapped off the streets of San Francisco and taken to Alaska where he could be used to pull sleds through the snow. Buck was treated so cruelly by his kidnappers that by the time he got to Alaska his great spirit was almost broken. But then he fell into the kindly hands of John Thornton. John loved Buck, and treated him so well that the two of them developed an undying loyalty to each other. One night in the Eldorado saloon, John was goaded into making a 1000 dollar bet that Buck could break a thousand pound load from a frozen standstill and drag it 100 yards. Some dogs had been able to break 500 pounds, and a few had even done 600, but 1000 pounds seemed impossible, even for Buck. Men spilled out of the saloon to see if Buck could do it.
A sled holding twenty 50 pound bags of flour was standing frozen fast to the snow. The ten dogs who had been pulling it were turned loose and Buck was hitched up in their place. John Thornton put his face up against the face of his great dog. And this time he didn’t playfully shake him like he always did. This time he knelt down in the snow at Buck’s side and whispered in his ear, “As you love me, Buck, as you love me….” Then he stepped aside, and Buck did it. Out of love for his master. My friends, you and I face a task today that the world says is impossible, living out the way of Jesus Christ…the way of self-sacrifice and service in his power and in his name. And what we have to go on is a voice in our ear, saying, “As you love me, as you love me.” That is our inspiration. That is what fuels us and keeps us going. And nothing…nothing gets done apart from that.
Filed under: Blogging Toward Sunday
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