Live Ridiculously

Boy, do we humans, for the most part, get it wrong. We don’t live ridiculously too much at all. I sure don’t. Way too often. Here’s a scenario I saw today right after church which I will use to explain myself.


I happened to drive past a popular and busy Dog/Spa Kennels. As I passed by it, I noticed that there were approximately 50-60 dogs outside in a large fenced in play area. I slowed down significantly to take the sight in. It was a wonderfully heartwarming sight that clearly drove home the key point of the message for today—that we should live ridiculously. I saw dogs of all sizes, breeds, colors, genders, styles of grooming, ages, looks, and I assume backgrounds. There they were—all romping together, tails wagging, happy, and yes, being ridiculous. It was obvious that none of them bothered categorizing (I call it thin-slicing when we humans do it), showing resentments, showing anger, or showing anything other than total acceptance of each other. All I saw was doggie love at work despite being surrounded by many differences.


We humans aren’t too good at that kind of “doggie love” are we? Isn’t it a shame that we are prone, because of our humanness, to categorize others based on their differences? It’s those who don’t quite fit into our little box of what’s “normal” who we tend to shy away from or have little to do with. It’s our “normal” to easily get angry or upset with others (and often express it in inappropriate ways) when things don’t go “our way”. It’s often our “normal” to seek that upper hand. It’s often our “normal” to run off at the mouth even though we later realize we can never retract those words.  Nope, we aren’t very good at that kind of “doggie love”. We don’t do well at living ridiculously do we?


Jesus modeled living ridiculously for us throughout His time on earth. God, through His Word, consistently shares with us how to live ridiculously since the time of Adam and Eve were first mentioned. Perhaps we need those great reminders, such as that “doggie love” example of today to remind us that we have some work to do. I did.