What Randy Singer’s Dog Taught Him About Being Loyal to Christ

Regent University professor-in-residence Randy Singer never wanted another dog.

But when the newest member of his family—a puppy named “Lambeau “—had a life-threatening trouble with breathing, he spared no cost for his treatment.

“I told my family that when I’m older, they better spend as much money on me for medical treatments as we did for the dog,” Singer told students and faculty at Regent’s weekly University Chapel service.

Singer even went so far as to sleep on an air mattress beside his new dog; comforting him in the middle of the night when he was struggling to sleep.

But then something remarkable happened. As soon as the dog recovered, he began to follow Singer around his home. If he’d pop up from his desk to go to the kitchen, Lambeau would follow:

“This dog was incredibly loyal, and all I did was sleep on an air mattress for 30 days.”

Singer used this anecdote to illustrate that since Christ died for the sins of the world, his followers should display that same sort of unwavering loyalty. And that this brand of loyalty leads to an incredible mission unlike any other.

Singer has had a glimpse of this in his own life; his career taking unexpected twists and turns as he fell into the grooves of where he was meant to be.

This was most evident when he received a call from a member of a congregation forming that would soon become Trinity Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Though he never pictured himself as a pastor, or even working outside of the secular marketplace, he put his “yes on the table” for what he felt “provoked” to do. Singer told his congregants that he’d “preach for them until they found someone who knew what they were doing.”

More than seven years later, Singer still serves as the pastor for the church, along with balancing his academic and legal responsibilities. And though Singer knows he’s been called to his current vocation “for such a time as this,” he knows that God’s mission will be accomplished with or without His followers.

“Guess what? God doesn’t really need you,” said Singer. “We’re given the privilege to serve God not because He needs us, but because we need Him.”

Learn more about Regent University’s Campus Ministries and the School of Law.