Pedigrees: Mutt or Pure Bread

This past year my family adopted a dog from an animal rescue. Well, actually, Harper adopted a dog from a rescue. She once had a fear of dogs, and by her own initiative, began a dog and cat sitting business to get over her fear, and raise funds to buy her own dog. This project resulted in the arrival of Scout (there was a previous adoption that ended with the dog biting our contractor). Scout is a black lab . . spaniel . . .boarder collie . . something mix. Basically, she looks like a black lab that someone shrunk to ½ size and put a fluffy tale on. She is a wonderful dog and we have had a great experience with her. She’s not a pure bread dog, but who cares, she does the job of loving my kids, obeying commands most of the time, and functioning as my alarm clock.

Now, there are some people who are really into pure bread dogs with good pedigrees. I get that. Based upon the breed, you can predict behavior, and size with pretty good accuracy. With mutts there is no telling what size or personality they might have. All you can do is wait, see, and experience. Not good for those who like predictability.

I have come to know, more or less admit, that I like pedigrees and pure breads in my Christians as well, especially other pastors. I like to know what school they went to, what books they read, who their favorite authors are, what preachers they listen to, and so on. Any possible mutant strand or lack of good breeding, and I have the tendency to deem you less than qualified for leadership, possibly even for salvation if I’m really being honest (that’s a joke). But I do like pedigrees. Paul liked pedigrees. He considered himself pure bread. But he realized that being pure bread was of little value because if his pedigree didn’t include Jesus his chances of winning Best of Show were zilch, and all his friends cared about were winning Best of Show.

So, what does this mean? Sure, you can make some predictions about a person’s spiritual pedigree, but that isn’t able to tell you everything, and it doesn’t determine if they will be a good leader or not.

I’m working on being less judgmental, and more open to people’s spiritual pedigree. I’m trying to wait, see, and experience people, rather than make predictions.