Bringing the Z
By Mr. Chuck Deitch
Pouncing Fox by Getty Images (Warren Howe) & Lazy Dog Sleeping in Temple by littlestocker Created in Canva
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
I do not know if you had previously heard the news about the fox and the dog, but this is a sentence I learned as a young child. Now I have heard and read lots of sentences in my lifetime, of course, but there is a reason that I have remembered this one when so many others have, as poet laureate Billy Collins once put it, "retired to that little fishing village in my brain" to be remembered no more. This sentence was special, I was taught, because it contains all the letters of the alphabet. Now, not being a sentence myself, or any other grammatical structure for that matter, I probably can't fully grasp the significance of this sentence possessing such bragging rights, but it is not hard for me to accept that something that contains a measure of completeness (as in containing the complete alphabet) can be thought of as "special".
Everytime I think about this sentence, I cannot help but be drawn to what makes it so complete. Certainly, the fox is the star of the thing. He is quick. He is jumping. He is brown. But you cannot escape the fact that, despite the fox's all-around awesomeness, if it were not for the laziness of the dog, this sentence would have long ago gone fishing with the others. You see the dog brings the "z". Now it's true that he could have done so by flying a zeppelin, slaying a zebra, or learning to play the zither bassoon, but somehow it just seems fitting that this dog, whose color is apparently not even worth mentioning, brings the last letter of the alphabet in the most undramatic of ways...and only then is everything complete.
Lately, in our morning devotional time, we as a staff at NSA have been challenged to not measure our “success” in following God by how big or flashy our ministries are, how many followers we have accumulated, or how wide of an impact we might have. Rather we are being challenged to measure success by whether we are willing daily to open our hands and our hearts to whatever God calls us to each day and to walk with Him faithfully and humbly in that call, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem. Yes, God may call some of us to be “foxes”, but it is just as likely, or perhaps even more likely, that He will call us to doggedly “bring the z” in some small, undramatic way.
It is my prayer for all who read this, that you might fully and faithfully embrace the plans God has for you, big or small, and that by doing so His body, and His kingdom here on earth, would be made complete. Amen!
Columns: 📣A Word From Admin ✝️Spiritual Life