Friday, April 2, 2010

are we there yet? take two


[written in '06 but the point of it is still true]

or --- this could be called "lessons I am learning from my dog" - take your pick on title for this little snippet of things I'm 'seeing' in my walk with Him. It's not the first seeing of it, but more clarity is being brought as I walk with my dog and as I walk with Him.

We have a Shih Tzu - she is three years old - never met a stranger - loves being loved on - very curious about everything. In many, many ways a perfectly delightful puppy. However, she is a excellent picture example of walking in the flesh! She also is a holly terror to walk with on a leash!

Always at the end of the leash - always straining to 'get there', and yet, when she 'gets there', she strains to get to the next 'there'. She is never satisfied to 'be', she never just wants to take a calm stroll with her master. There is absolutely no way we could or would ever take her out without her halter with leash attached - we couldn't trust her to stay tucked in beside us - letting us be with her and provide for her what she needs and/or wants for that moment.

[an acquaintance] wrote earlier this week about the 'what-ifs' of tomorrow and I thought of the penchant of so many of us to try to charge into the tomorrows - straining on the leash of the moment and completely missing the todays of His 'now' presence.

I've always been in a hurry to 'get there'. I don't know if this goes hand in hand with the tendency to borrow trouble from tomorrow, but for me it has. I think what I am hearing and seeing from Father is that straining into tomorrow before it becomes today is like going 'there' by myself - and having to fend for myself in that tomorrow - which brings fretting, worry and no contentment or peace along with other undesirable 'things'. (Now, I know that He has gone before me and has made a way for me, but that is not what I'm talking about here.)

I am learning to take no thought for tomorrow nor be anxious for anything - I am learning to stop straining on the leash in order to 'get there' - and instead I am learning to be content in whatever state I am. I am learning what it really means and looks like and feels like to stay tucked into His side under His wing and there find fellowship with Him and reap of His provision for that moment. In this place of not straining and being at His side, Peace and Trust Himself has the freedom to live in and through me.

It is an ugly sight when I walk the dog - for a twelve pound mass, she has amazing pull as she dashes about at the end of her leash! For comparison, there has been another dog-example brought before me in the last several months. She is a beautiful, sleek, powerfully built black Great Dane. She is grace in motion - peaceful, dignified and regal. She walks beside her master on a leash - but the leash is loose in her master's hand - she never strains against it. She is instead content to 'be' with her master and listen to the whispers of his voice.

Man's best friend - and great examples for our walk with Him if we will have eyes to see.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love the way God opens our eyes to spiritual truths through real life lessons with our pets or through any oportunity that is available - sometimes the head lines in the newspaper.