“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”        Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

My dog Henry does not serve two masters. The master he does serve is neither me nor my wife. He serves the master of food. He is a thirteen-year-old basset hound, white around the muzzle, round around the belly. He is in pretty good shape for an old basset but that it not due to lack of effort. He can only eat what we give him. And what he can scavenge. He is old now. So he is slow. He mopes his way around the yard to go to the bathroom. We drag him on walks where he goes progressively slower as the walk continues. He saunters toward his bed when it’s time to go to sleep. But he sprints like a greyhound when he hears the pantry door open.

The thing is my dog doesn’t try to be passionate about food. It’s not something he has disciplined himself to do. I think maybe that’s just how God made him. Our other dog literally just walked away from her lunch. But not Henry. Never Henry.

I don’t want to serve two masters. Fortunately money is not my temptation, but I’ve found plenty of others. But discipline has only moved my heart a little. So today my prayer is that God would make me like that. Just like he made Henry with a passion for food, would he make me with a passion for him? I will choose him. I will exert my will and discipline in pursuit of loving him more deeply. But I’m going to ask him to make me. So that when I am old and slow, I will still sprint to his presence.