So I like consistency. I love structure and routines. I would have totally been a natural candidate for the military if I didn’t have some mild authority issues. But I do enjoy the structure and routine of a daily schedule and I’ve emulated this in my life through having routines that I’m belligerently devoted to.

I leave work at the exact same time every day, I go to the same place to run, park in the same spot and run the same trail and mileages. I could give you more examples but they all would include the word ‘same’ and you have probably already ascertained that point.

Along these lines, everyday on the path I run, there’s this dog on the upside of a hill. The dog is always outside and on some chain that extends far enough to let him think that he can reach me, but he never can but OH MAN does he try to reach me EVERYDAY.

The following statement is kind of the thesis of this post so pay attention: This dog hates the crap out of me. It hates my guts, it hates that I’ve chosen a path to run that intersects with his sight line, it hates the wheezing sound I make as I run and it probably would hate the podcasts I listen to as I run if it had opposable thumbs and could fit those earbuds in his big dumb dog ears.

The dog doesn’t just bark at me when I pass. It BARKS at me like there’s a real malevolence to it.

Every day, the dog doesn’t notice me until I’m parallel to whatever shade he’s camped out in. I continue passing and he barks until I’m out of sight. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

On most paths I’ve run regularly in the past, the dogs I encounter act bloodthirsty towards me the first few times. Then, after a while, they ignore me because a) I’m boring b) I’m clearly not a threat and c) they’ve learned that I’m not trying to bust up their territory or urinate on their turf or whatever. I’m just trying to complete my run without keeling over and dying from heatstroke.

But this dog is different. Every day, it comes strong with a renewed sense of hatred and vitriol as though if he barks enough, I’ll change the path I run.

And in a lot of ways, this is how I feel as a Christian and watching the Church deal with the homosexual community. We’re the dog that just won’t shut up despite the fact that all that barking isn’t helping anything.