The Problem with Having a Dog Like Lassie

As I was growing up, one of the staples of my television viewing was “Lassie.” Lassie’s master was Timmy. I use the word “master” loosely because Lassie actually ran the show. Timmy was constantly getting into various jams, and Lassie was always the one who came to his rescue.

If Timmy had fallen into a pond and was having trouble getting out, Lassie would jump in, grab him by the shirt collar, and swim to the shore with him. Sometimes the difficulty was more than Lassie could handle by herself, and she would go to get some help. If Timmy was trapped in the old abandoned mine, Lassie would go to the house, bark out some instructions, and then lead the rescuers to the old mineshaft. If Lassie had seen someone hit Timmy over the head, blindfold him, and take his bicycle, the authorities would arrange a lineup, which included a suspect, and bring the lineup before Lassie. Lassie would look at the suspects, bark at the guilty party, and point him out with her paw.

I always wished I had a dog like Lassie. Daddy’s foxhounds were all a little dull. Wilbur Leach had a dog that had a little collie in him, and Wilbur swore that he was related to Lassie. I always sort of doubted that, but it was so exciting to believe that I never openly contradicted him.

I saw a cartoon the other day that showed an old collie dog lying on his back on a psychiatrist’s couch. The psychiatrist was saying to the dog, “Lassie, at some point you’re just going to have to allow Timmy to take responsibility for his own life.”

Taking responsibility for our own lives is difficult. It is so much more comforting to rely upon someone else to assume the responsibility for us.

Gerald Kennedy was a bishop in the Methodist church in the middle part of the 20th century and was an outstanding preacher and writer. In 1935, in those days leading up to World War II, Kennedy made a bicycle tour of Germany. In a small town near Berlin, he met a Nazi who spoke glowingly of what Hitler was doing for Germany. Kennedy wrote, “I have not forgotten the look of relief on his face as he said, ‘Whatever he commands, I will do.’” Kennedy added, “Finding a man who would take responsibility for all of the decisions in his life was what he wanted most of all.”

Finding someone who will take the responsibility for your life off your hands is very comforting. It makes life so much simpler. It takes away what we often call “the burden” of responsibility.

One of the problems with this, however, is that we can never assign responsibility for our lives to someone else. We have to take the responsibility ourselves. We are the ones who are accountable to God for what we say and do.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Lassie, Hitler, or someone else who is more than willing to take responsibility for us. God has called us to be responsible for our own lives.