Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
- Deuteronomy 8:11-14
No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
- 2 Corinthians 2:15
Back a few weeks ago, I visited my son in Tennessee. Five humans, five dogs. The humans reacted as if they knew me. The oldest dog remembered me. The second oldest dog ignored me.
The three young dogs that are possibly still puppies, barked the intruder alarm.
Then, the dogs sniffed me and one of the three decided that she liked me, the brown one on the back of the sofa in the photo. One of the others was curious, but wary. The third was the other female. She remained concerned, but she didn’t bark or growl.
To explain the three puppies, they are a beagle mix. They were found, nearly starved and the finding couple – with plenty of farm land for a beagle to hunt in… That couple gave the dogs to my son, who has a heart for abandoned animals. So, these dogs have a high sense of survival over anything else. They love going through the trash. They will eat anything that remotely looks or smells like food.
But in spite of their neuroses, my son and his children are training the dogs.
But when I awoke the next day, the dogs went through the intruder alarm routine. I was there seven nights, thus seven mornings of barking like crazy because there was an intruder in the house. The brown dog, that liked me, quickly realized her error. The boy puppy who was wary soon quit barking. But the other girl dog remained her neurotic self, often growling and barking throughout the day.
Note: The older dog in the photo requires me to pay her the cheese tax, otherwise, she is a lot like me, quiet, fine with an empty house or with some company – irritated with loud noise and a lot of company. Cheese tax: She stares at me, knowing that I do not go anywhere without some cheese nearby, and she remains by my side, never barking, but always there, until I give her some cheese.
But my point is that Moses warned the people of Israel against forgetting God, but they forgot God any chance they got.
And we are the same.
We know that we should keep our eyes on Jesus, but any and every shining or glimmering thing attracts our attention.
The old joke about people from a particular university who come back on Monday and have to be retrained because they forgot everything applies. The farm boy who I had in a nuclear physics class who said that he crammed all the information in and it was steady leaking out applies.
My grandson is almost twelve years old. One day while visiting, he had to go to the doctor. I asked him if he was ready to go. He did not move. I asked him if he had shoes on. He bent over to check. He was barefoot, and he did not even notice. Of course, not having any clean socks to wear was a completely different issue, but how can you forget that you have not put on socks and shoes?
Whether it is a slowly leaking memory that fades over time or it is sudden – take a nap, totally forget – we forget how awesome our God is. We forget the wonders of this universe. We forget that God provides the rain and the sunny days. We forget God knows every hair on our heads. We forget God’s sovereignty and how events happen so that God can guide us toward His will and protect us along the way. And we forget how God loves us. We take all that for granted. And then the new shiny thing becomes the focus of our attention.
Life works a lot better when we keep our eyes on Jesus.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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