Like many people, we have a “lockdown puppy”, a German schnauzer named Winnie, whom we adopted at the beginning of remote teaching in March. We’ve had many dogs over the years, but Winnie is by far the best trained and most obedient and well-adjusted of them all. This is partly because we’ve learned a few things about training dogs over the years but mainly it’s because we’ve had a lot of time to spend with her in the training process.
A lot of people I’ve met in my outreach conversations have some misunderstandings about God’s discipline, viewing it basically as His “training program” for humans. One such person was a man named Nelson, himself a dog trainer, who stated that he only believes in positive reinforcement, not punishment, for the dogs he trains. And I believe this training philosophy carries over into his beliefs about God as well.
Nelson at first told me he is agnostic, and explained that this means he simply doesn’t know if God exists or what He is like. Yet he went on to state with quite a bit of certainty his ideas about what God does (love and other forms of positive reinforcement) and what God does not do (punishment and other forms of negative correction.)
But God isn’t limited by any human “training program” philosophy, whether it includes both positive and negative reinforcement or not. The problem with putting God’s character in this sort of manmade box is that when God seems to act in ways we believe to be outside of our box, our image of God becomes subject to criticism and, soon after, to unbelief.
A man-centered theology, which believes God exists to serve man, cannot accept that God may have purposes and plans that don’t directly benefit or include ourselves. It can’t accept that God may do things in and around us for which He owes us no explanation. It easily dismisses whatever it can’t understand, as if God needs man’s acceptance or permission to carry out His will.
In Job 38-39, God asks Job 77 rhetorical questions designed to show Job, and us, exactly who we are in relation to our Creator: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?...”
It goes on like this for 2 chapters, and should help us to see that neither you nor I are at the center of God’s universe. I’m not trying to compare us to dogs, but, frankly, the biggest problem with an untrained dog is that he comes to believe he is the center of his own universe, and our puppy Winnie was no exception, smart as she is. But as she undergoes the training process, she is becoming much more content, more assured and confident, and her life will be much happier in the long run, even if she has not understood what I was doing or even thought that I was being demanding or cruel at times.
So who IS at the center of God’s universe? A God-centered theology means just that – God is. We exist to serve Him, not He for us. He wants to be our heavenly Father, and Jesus gives us the perfect example of what it means to be a child of God. On the night He was betrayed, when He was in agonizing prayer contemplating the suffering He was about to face, Jesus prayed “Not my will, but yours be done”.
This kind of discipline, trust and obedience doesn’t happen overnight, but it begins with putting God first rather than ourselves, understanding that He is God, and we are not.
Thanks, Nelson, for allowing me to record our conversation. It can be seen on my YouTube channel.
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