On this lovely afternoon, while playing ball with our rescue dog, I had quite a revelation regarding my relationship with God. Our dog, who loves to play ball almost as much as she loves to eat (and that’s a whole lot), kept trying to run by me on the deck just after she caught the ball each time; and if she does get by me and down into the yard with her ball, she seldom comes back up to play more (and yes, I have ruled out the possibility that she just wants to play ball off the deck and down in the yard). Since she loves to play so much, I’ve never quite understood why she so often chooses to run away from the fun. She knows at this point, after all, that if she goes down into the yard with the ball, I stop the “game” by going back inside. So, why would she choose to end her own fun, even when she’s clearly not yet tired.
The answer to this is so simple that I feel foolish it didn’t occur to me sooner. Our dog, like most of us, apparently wants to be in control and chooses to be so even at her own expense–and I do this same dance with God. Often, when he gives me a great gift, a “ball” of sorts that I dearly love, I choose to run off all on my own instead of playing his way. And then I find myself wondering what happened to my partner and I think that he has pulled away from me, when in reality I am the one who’s chosen to leave the deck with my toy.
C. S. Lewis, in his book The Problem of Pain I believe, says that we are at times like puppies who leave their owner’s arms just after having a bath so that we can go and wallow in the mud. Lewis says that we prefer our own comfortable dirtiness. Yes, we do like to call the shots down here; and in doing so we muddy things up quite often–and we can even end the game. When I saw the sheer joy in our dog’s eyes as I held her tennis ball way up high, I laughed out loud today (and then I yelled at her when she finally did sneak past me). I do believe God likes to see that same kind of joy on our faces, only he understands perfectly when we choose to step away from such joyful moments in order to turn to lesser things. We do indeed have a most High Priest who’s been where we are and who’s been tempted how we are–only he never, ever succumbed.
Leave a Reply