What Goes Around

I was riding with an officer named Bill several years ago. Late into the second shift, he was called to the report of a burglary. Sure enough, bad guys had broken into a repair shop and stolen tools. The witness said they fled along a set of railroad tracks behind the shop.

Bill radioed for Brian and his partner Merlin. Well, Merlin wasn’t exactly a partner. Merlin was a huge Rottweiler. He picked up the trail and led us along the tracks, then across a small creek and up a steep hill.

The hill was every bit of 30 feet (this was in West Virginia) and wooded. I dropped back and let the officers and Merlin get well ahead of me. If someone jumped up from under a rock or out from behind a tree, I didn’t want to be in the middle of it, in the dark on a steep hill.

Merlin lost the track in about the middle of the hill. Brian began to call-out: “Police Department. Show yourselves now or I will release the dog.” I didn’t like that. He shouted again, louder. I liked it less.

Merlin was a good dog – while he was on his leash. Off the leash, Merlin was unpredictable. Unpredictable and mean. I was far enough behind the officers that, if the dog circled around and came from behind me, he might assume I was a bad guy and bite me where my mamma used to swat me.

Brian did not release the dog. Turned out he did not trust him either.

We didn’t get the bad guys that night. The officers later learned from informants that they slipped into the nearby apartment of a friend. They were eventually arrested.

But there is a reminder here. An undisciplined life is much like an undisciplined dog. There may come a time that it will come from behind and bite you.

The Apostle Paul teaches us in 2 Timothy 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.