The Shepherd and the Poodle
IllustrationParableAnalogy★★★★THE STORY is told of two dogs, a German shepherd and a poodle. They were arguing about who was the greatest. The German shepherd argued that he was bigger and stronger; the poodle argued that he was cuter. The German shepherd, game for a contest, asked the poodle if he wanted to test his greatness by seeing which dog could get inside the house of the owner first.
Poodle agreed to the challenge. The German shepherd went first. With its strength, it went up on its hind legs, opened its mouth, and put it on the doorknob. He couldn’t turn the knob with his mouth so he took his paws and begin twisting and tweaking.
After about three minutes, he had twisted and turned and tweaked it and he got the door opened. He was worn out from his effort to get inside. It was the poodle’s turn. He went over to the other door, got up on his hind legs, and scratched.
The owner came and opened the door. Religion required hard work and lots of effort. Relationship required a lot less because the poodle knew how to get the attention of the owner.
The point
A shepherd and poodle compete to enter their owner's house; the shepherd uses brute strength while the poodle uses intimacy and relationship, illustrating the difference between religion (hard work, effort) and relationship with God (natural connection, mutual attention).