It was dark on that fateful August evening when I swung open my front door and let out our family dog, Marty, for one more bathroom break before bed.
There was a bark, a whimper, and the sound of something scampering away. Before my brain could catch up with my nose, Marty rushed past me and back into the house. The breeze he generated made one thing clear: He’d been sprayed by a skunk.
What followed for my husband and me was a long night of baths, upholstery cleaning, tears (shed by me, not Marty), and a resolution to never again let our dog outside without his harness.
A few months passed, and the skunk smell was almost entirely gone when one night, feeling tired, I skipped the harness and lazily clipped his leash directly to his collar.
Only 10 feet from the door, a skunk waddled by. It took just one strong pull for Marty to slip out of his collar. The skunk did his best to escape, but when Marty closed the distance, oblivious to my pleas from the front porch, it was game over.
“Why doesn’t this dog learn?!” I cried, as I mixed baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap. The hypocrisy of the statement didn’t escape me. I’d made a choice, but a dog is a dog, and it will chase no matter what. It can endure five baths in a row and being banished to the garage, but it won’t recall any of that the next time it sees a skunk. And at the end of the day, I’m not so much better.
As Paul writes in Romans 7:15, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate” (NLT). Paul’s frustration is palpable in this chapter, and I get it. Months of lingering skunk smell weren’t enough to motivate me to slip that harness on Marty.
Sometimes I’m Marty, following my base instincts and running headlong into disaster while my Master calls after me. And sometimes I’m Paul, knowing full well what I should do and instead, leaving the harness hanging by the door.
That night as I finished bath number three, I thought of my own Master, Jesus. He calls out, entreating us to choose what’s best, but He’s always ready to patiently wash us clean when we fail. Sometimes the effects of our choices linger long after, but that never changes His love for us.
Let’s find hope in Paul’s conclusion to Romans 7: “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Rachel Keele is director of University Wellness at Andrews University and manager of the Andreasen Center for Wellness.