Month: December 2021

Extreme obsession

My dog has few interests. He likes to snuggle and eat and go for walks. But his favourite thing in the world is his toy bone. One particular brand, soft rubber that smells like bacon. As the bone begins to look threadbare and pulled apart I’ll get a new one. So sometimes he has two at a time. He always prefers the new one.

If you bring a new one home, he can tell. He will whimper in the kitchen cause he knows it’s in the bag of groceries on the counter. If it gets stuck under the couch, he will sit by the couch and harass you until you figure out what he wants. When I come home, after being out running errands, he runs to the door with his bone in his mouth. If he doesn’t have it, he will run around and find it before he greets me.

He loves his bone.

The other night it was almost bed time. It is very cold here, so I wanted to make sure he was in the house. He wasn’t in my son’s room, so I went downstairs and asked the girls and they didn’t know where he was. I looked all over. Finally, I looked in the downstairs TV room. He was sitting in the middle of the dark room staring at the couch. I looked at him and shook my head. Then it dawned on me, so I asked if he had lost his bone. He didn’t respond, cause he’s a dog.

I moved the chair, which had been pushed up against the couch, and there was his bone wedged in the corner. He knew where it was, and he wasn’t leaving that spot until someone helped him get it. He is single-minded in his focus.

That is what we need to do with Jesus. He needs to be our single-minded obsession. We need to search for Him in our life and keep Him close. We need to greet our neighbours, remembering to bring Jesus with us. We need to sit still and watch Him.

This is the lesson my dog taught me this week.

Hebrews 12: 1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not
grow weary and lose heart.

Do nothing

The hardest thing to do is nothing.

I look around me and see strife and trouble, but nothing I offer will answer. I feel helpless and angry. I see families fighting over unseen threats. I see people clinging to ideas with a vigour that puts virtue above love. I see hurt. I see frustration.

I spend so much time trying to think of what I can write that will answer this problem. I strain my mind to think of a way to help. But I have nothing. I am truly powerless. I can’t change anyone’s perspective. I can’t make people see how they are behaving. I have nothing to offer.

So I do nothing.

As I sit. Empty. Quiet. Still.

God answers my heart, “Trust me, I am.”

This is His fight. This is His battle.

I am like an injured bird, the more I struggle the more I hurt myself. If I submit and calm my soul he can heal my wounds.

Let’s try being quiet. Quiet before God.

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake,
I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Family ties

When I was in University, I got a call from my Grandpa one evening. He said, “You have to come over and see these people we have here.” I questioned him as it was already getting late. “No, you need to come. These are relatives. You need to meet them.” He hung up without even saying goodbye. Something he would often forget to do. I got in my car and drove through the dark city, lit up by strings of streetlights, and made my way to their apartment.

It was a nice evening. I left not sure why I needed to know these people. All I knew is that my presence was important to my Grandpa. It wasn’t life changing. But it showed me how my Grandpa valued his kin.

A long time ago, God spoke to His Son. Maybe he said something like, “You need to go meet these people. You need to go see them, so they can understand me and know more about me.” I know, It’s silly to imagine what God and Jesus would have said to each other, as I am sure they communicate far more fully than we can comprehend.

Jesus came down to meet us. To show us our heritage and lineage, to explain our family connections. He did this because God cares about us. He wants us to know we are part of his family and loved by him.

There can be no greater honour than being called to meet and see God, through his own Son. A meeting with the Son of God is indeed life changing.

John 17: 25-26 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”