The Four-Dollar Friend

One of the things I have always loved about dogs is their loyalty.

A good dog doesn't care much about your bank account, your position, what kind of truck you drive, or whether somebody down the road has better treats. If you're his person, you're his person.

There is an old joke that says if you want to find out who is really loyal, lock your spouse and your dog in the trunk of your car for fifteen minutes. Then open the trunk and see which one is happy to see you.

Now, please don't try that at home. I am pretty sure it will prove something, but it may also prove whether you can afford bail money and marriage counseling.

But the point of the joke is true. Dogs have an amazing capacity for loyalty.

Years ago, I worked for a foodservice company in sales. I discovered fairly quickly that sales probably wasn't my spiritual gift.

The problem was I always felt guilty charging people for things.

Most people didn't take advantage of that, but I eventually reached the point where I was going to the grocery store and buying food for people I was supposed to be selling food to because they didn't have enough money to place an order with me. At the same time, I was dropping another customer's children off at school because she didn't have anybody to help her.

Somewhere along the way I thought, Shea, I don't believe you're doing food sales anymore.

I began to suspect the Lord might have another line of work for me.

But there was one experience from those days that taught me something about loyalty that I have never forgotten.

For several months I was covering a sales route around Roanoke, Virginia. One of the restaurants on my route had a terrible fire.

Our company told us, "Help them any way you can."

So my boss and I went to work.

We went through their inventory and picked up unopened boxes of food that hadn't been damaged and credited those items back to them. They had opened products that could still be safely frozen, so we arranged for one of our trucks to pick those up and take them to our large company freezer. We stacked everything on pallets and stored it for them until they could rebuild.

We even donated our own time to help with some of the cleanup.

Nobody had to twist our arms. They were our customer. They were hurting. We had the ability to help, so we helped.

It took them a couple of months to get everything cleaned up and ready to reopen. When the day finally came, I went back to meet with the owner. We arranged a date to return all the food we had stored, and I asked what they needed to order to get the restaurant back up and running.

Now, this was normally a pretty large account. I expected an opening order of somewhere around a hundred items.

The order came in.

Four items.

I looked at it and thought surely somebody had lost a page or ninety-six.

So I called the owner.

"Is this right?"

That's when he explained that while they were rebuilding, another food company had come by. They could sell him shrimp a few cents cheaper per pound and steak a couple cents cheaper per pound.

Therefore, he had decided to move his business to them unless we could beat their price.

I sat down and figured up the difference.

After everything our company had done, the credits, the freezer space, the truck, the storage, the cleanup, the time, and simply standing beside them when their business was literally in ashes, they were leaving us over a savings of less than four dollars a week.

Four dollars.

I thought, Friend, the Rolaids I take after dealing with you cost more than that

That experience taught me something.

Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Loyalty isn't staying with somebody only while they are the cheapest, easiest, most convenient, or most beneficial option.

I’ve met a few folks over the years who didn’t seem to like themselves much, and from the looks of things, they weren’t real fond of anybody else either.

They could find something wrong with sunshine, complain that free ice cream was too cold, and if you gave them a hundred-dollar bill, they’d probably fuss because it wasn’t two fifties.

But somehow, sitting right beside them would be an old dog who thought they were the greatest human being God ever put in a pair of boots.

That dog didn’t care that everybody else crossed the street when they saw his owner coming. He didn’t care that the fellow had the personality of a rabid coon.

The old dog would follow him to the barn, ride beside him in the truck, sit at his feet on the porch, and look up at him like he had personally invented bacon.

Maybe we could learn something from an old faithful dog.

A dog doesn't spend Tuesday afternoon sniffing around the neighborhood looking for a better owner because somebody three houses down bought premium treats.

He's yours.

And there is something deeply biblical about faithfulness.

The Bible says:

"Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him..." Deuteronomy 7:9

Our God is a faithful God.

His faithfulness isn't based on whether today has been convenient. He doesn't love us when we're useful and abandon us when we're struggling. God's character is steadfast.

Paul writes: "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself."

2 Timothy 2:13

Think about that.

Our faithfulness sometimes wobbles all over the road, but God's never does.

And because God is faithful, faithfulness ought to increasingly characterize His people.

Proverbs 17:17 says: "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

Not just when you've got something to offer.

At all times.

Most importantly, we need loyalty to Jesus Christ.

Following Jesus isn't about asking, "What's the cheapest price I can pay and still call myself a Christian?"

It is saying, "Jesus, I'm Yours."

That's loyalty.

And here's the beautiful part: our loyalty to Christ will never begin to compare with His loyalty to us.

Jesus promised: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Matthew 28:20

People may disappoint you. Friends sometimes walk away. Businesses may trade years of kindness for four dollars a week. Even those of us who love Jesus will sometimes fail Him.

But Jesus Christ is faithful.

Maybe that's one reason God has used dogs to teach me so many lessons.

An old faithful dog doesn't calculate what you're worth to him every morning. He isn't looking for an upgrade. He doesn't care whether you're having your best day or your worst. He just knows you're his person, and he wants to stay close.

I believe Christians ought to understand that kind of faithfulness.

Don't sell a relationship worth everything for a four-dollar savings.

Be faithful to your spouse.

Be faithful to your family.

Be faithful to your friends.

Be faithful to your word.

Above everything else, be faithful to Jesus.

Because long after the price of shrimp and steak has changed, loyalty will still be worth something.

And when it comes to faithfulness, maybe we could all stand to be a little more like an old dog with their head on your lap:

Stay close. Stay true. And don't trade somebody who stood beside you for four dollars and a tuff steak.