By Ken Laue

Two young and spry joggers, a guy and a girl, were taking a break with their dogs at a picnic table along the bike trail. One dog was unleashed, and the other was snooping around with its leash trailing behind. Apparently, the well-posted signage regarding the city leash law didn’t apply to these paragons of dog training.

The male jogger suddenly snapped to at the sight of the loose leash careening like a flying snake behind his jet-propelled dog. This canine was out for the kill, but the young runner was quick enough to snatch his dog's lead and divert him from his ultimate prey: me.

My fall-back position for dog-on-bicyclist violence is to slam on my brakes, turn and face the charging dog with pepper spray, and yell “Stay!” at the top of my lungs, a ploy that is 90% effective. But in my adrenaline rush, I was left facing the pet owners with this withering word of wisdom: “You better keep your dog under control!”

How often does the Holy Spirit tell me to keep my dog under control? And I haven’t owned a furry canine for ten years.

Recently I’d gotten kicked around by life, slammed up against walls and the like, just as anyone will who’s been alive for more than a minute can relate. Nursing hurt and self-pity, I gave God my response to those trials: Well, who let the devil off the leash?

I was thinking of Job, and how God told Satan, “I’ll go ahead and let you work him over, although I’ll set some boundaries on how far he can go.” (Read Job Chapter 2).

Where did this onslaught of Hell against my life come from? Job must have wondered at some point. Nevertheless, Job hung in there, trusting God even while he lost most of his family, his wealth, and his health. When it was all said and done, God blessed him above and beyond his original state.

Job’s ordeal reminds me of my own adventures from 2009 through 2012. In and out of the ER with four heart procedures, then after prostate surgery, a few more visits back due to urinary retention (that’s doctorese for can’t pee -- you wanna talk about pain). The surgery was forever in healing and I despaired of ever being well again.

Yeah, who let the devil off the leash, anyway?

But now I’m doing quite well in that area (i.e., I’ve been in the flow lately) and I just did a fifteen-mile bike ride on one day this week, and a twelve-mile ride with a couple three-mile walks sandwiched between on another. That means my heart is still working, at least. So God did me like he did Job: He restored me. He kept Satan in check.

Yes! Tighten his choke collar, Lord.

Take a look at the world sometime and you may wonder if the choke collar is still on the pit bull. But God tells us in Scripture that He will be our banner out front and our rear guard.

Still, there’s that World Magazine photo of dead African Christians loaded like cord wood in the back of a battered Toyota pickup.

Who let the devil off the leash?

Why is there suffering? For centuries, theologians, prophets, and preachers have wrestled with this question, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do know that God says we can trust Him, even in the midst of this wicked world. That we will have eternal life with Him in Heaven and that He rewards faithfulness under fire are also pieces to the puzzle.

So, I wonder: when Adam and Eve disobeyed and sin entered the world, how much reign did God grant Satan over His creation?

While I lay bored in the hospital I watched a documentary that showed several orcas delighting for long periods in the torture of sea lion victims before dispatching and eating them.

Are great white sharks or grizzly bears or malaria-bearing mosquitoes Satan’s modifications, or did God make these changes directly?

I cast my personal vote for the idea that Satan was the one who messed up creation. Big time. With a little help from his friends. After all, you can’t blame the devil for Burmese pythons overtaking the Everglades, or for invasive species, extinctions, deforestation and pollution.

And no, man doesn’t cause global warming. The Vikings had no coal-fueled factories or SUVs when they named Greenland. The earth was much warmer then, and climate goes in cycles.

But that’s another article.

Looking at the mess the world is in, it’s far too easy to say, “God, You let Satan off the leash, so this messed-up world is all Your fault! But don’t be too quick.

It may surprise you, as it did me, that you are the one who let Satan off the leash.

I turned him loose, not just Adam and Eve. God showed me that I let the devil off the leash by entertaining sin. I didn’t unsnap his collar in any cosmic sense, but in my own little world… I did. In the jogging path of life, I let my attack dog off the leash, and others got hurt.

And in my own little world, in the sphere of influence that God has given me, the responsibility is mine alone.

We all fail. But reaching out to God for His sure grace and forgiveness snaps the lead back on Satan’s choke collar and foils his attacks on innocent bystanders.

We underestimate the wide-ranging effects and depths of sin. Self-deception says that little sin you committed and confessed and were forgiven of was no big deal, so the consequences can’t be, either.

But take note: while God can forgive any sin, some broken things may not get fixed. If that dog had mauled me, it could have caused permanent damage.

If you’ve blown it and let the dog maul you or others, leash him up as fast as you can and pull him off! Put the brakes on the action even as you seek God’s promised forgiveness. Savvy?

Damage control dictates coming to Jesus for forgiveness. He will help you through the broken places and keep you from making things worse, as you follow Him.

I get in trouble real quick when I try to second-guess how and why God set up the universe as He did. Ever try to get a grip on the vastness of God’s handiwork?

Begin with the zillions of stars and trillions of light years and then take it down to the trillions of atoms in a drop of water. What holds those atoms together and keeps the planets and galaxies in their orbits?

And to think that God knows each star’s name, and that a beetle crawling across your patio is vastly more intricate than our finest computer or stealth aircraft. Plus, it can reproduce with a female of its kind. Can a stealth fighter do that? Can your smart phone?

Even 3-D printing and manufacturing don’t come close to God’s creativity.

I can drive myself crazy trying to figure out God’s reasons for allowing things as He does, but I think God would rather have me worry about those times I have let Satan off the leash by my own sinful actions. And I’m sure He wants me to worry about getting things right with Him.

Maybe God will explain it all in Heaven. That would be nice.

But in the meantime, I can’t afford to think that I can operate above the spiritual leash law that is meant to hold back so many threats in my corner of the world.

And when I do fail, do you know how I snap that choke collar back quickly?

No, darling, I don’t call Animal Control.

You were obviously texting in class. You get a zero on the quiz.

I take it to Jesus and ask for forgiveness.

Snap! I come back to the Master immediately, asking for His Spirit to help me change my actions right now. And the devil is put back in his place.