Always on Top

"Why do you do this?"  Dick asks Mickey with a smile on his face.  When Dick sits in his chair watching TV, Mickey, the male pup, will ask to jump up.  Mickey positions himself standing on Dick's chest looking down on him, staring into his eyes.

After reading  Deuteronomy 28: 1-14, I think Mickey is trying to satisfy his desire to be the Top of someone.  We have three dogs.  Makena is a female and the oldest so we have designated her the Alpha dog (after us of course).  Molly is a female and was born with  more Alpha dog than all of us in the house.  She definitely is Mickey's big sister. She tells him what to do, takes away anything he has and sometimes she barks at him just because he is breathing!  Good thing she's real cute!  Mickey is a male and in his mind he should be the Top Dog but he is "barking up the wrong tree!"

In the first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28, God tells the Israelites they will be "high above all the nations" if they fully obey God and carefully follow all His commands.  They will be blessed wherever they live, city or country.  Their crops and livestock will be blessed.  They will be blessed coming and going.

The Israelites will go from being the bottom of the social ladder, slaves, to "always be at the top, never at the bottom" but they were not to turn aside from any of His commands.

In the world today we are given many examples of being on top. We need to be glamorous or well known or rich or powerful.  The TV is full of reality shows where plucky characters let us follow their quest to be famous, even for a few minutes and even if they act ridiculous.  In their minds they are "on Top".

 Yet if we follow the world's plan to be on Top,  we are dependent on the opinions of other people.  Our position of the Top, is fragile and those under us can be fickle and we fall at their whim.  There is always someone else plotting and scheming to remove us from the Top to gain the position for themselves. (This thought made be shiver and remember my life as a teenager in high school and the thirst for popularity, fleeting as it is!  Yikes!)

God's offer of "on Top" is not based on other people.   It is His gift to us.  He gives us the method and the choice. 

God even defines "on Top".  The world defines the Top as above all the people and looking down.  God defines "on Top" as a life full of blessing, looking up to God the source of all we have.  God's method to be on Top is to completely, fully, wholeheartedly and always follow His ways.  We are to never turn to the right or the left.  Keep straight on the path to walk in His ways. 

Just in case, we might not know what turning away might be, God even tells us it would be following and serving another god.  In today's world, there are plenty of distractions.  Today I am reminded that to be on Top I need to be focused on one, not me as the one, as the world misleads, but focus on The One who gives me All.

God offers me a life of "on Top" but to have it I must choose to follow Him wholeheartedly. I must relinquish control of the road to the Top and give God control of my quest.  If I always choose God's way, I will always be on Top.

Mickey and Molly fight to be Top Dog but Makena is the Top Dog because we chose her.  God has chosen me, and you, to be on Top.  I don't have to fight, plan or connive to be the Top.  God has given me the opportunity to choose to be on Top by following His ways.

Whew!  That doesn't make me shiver but gives me purpose and joy.  What a great way of life--God's way to the Top!