My habit is to walk the dog every morning, rain or shine. Pepper loves it. He somehow knows when I’ve decided it is time to go and has even learned what W-A-L-K spells. He excitedly jumps and barks and encourages me to hurry up so we can get the walk underway. But there’s another result of his barking: it alerts the cat that the walk is underway. Occasionally, but very rarely, I can get Pepper out the door before he alerts the whole neighborhood. On those days, the cat hears the door close and eventually comes to see what’s going on. When she sees that “the walk” is underway, she runs to catch up - unless, of course, she sees that I’ve noticed that she’s coming and then her tail goes up like a flag and she slows to a dignified saunter.
One day we managed to get half of the way around the field before she noticed. She wanted to accompany us so badly that she cut straight across the field. Normally our path is around the edge. That way, if there’s something that spooks her, she can be up a tree before you can say lickety-split. But cutting across the field? That’s dangerous. An owl could swoop down and enjoy cat for dinner. So the day she cut across the field, I watched the behavior of a scaredy-cat. She would creep a few steps and then crouch and look back over her shoulder, then creep a few more steps. I was a little concerned that the owl would also observe her vulnerable state and took pity on her. I walked to meet her. She was delighted. Of course, the only way I know that is by how she insisted I scratch her chin once we met mid-field.
Recently, her MO is to watch carefully for “the walk” and zoom silently past me - and stop dead in front of me. If I’m not paying attention, it’s easy to boot the cat. That always results in me telling her that I’m sorry and that I didn’t mean to hurt her - and a scratch under the chin. So, of course, you know that she has decided that’s the way to get her morning quota of chin scratches - zip past me and stop dead in front of me - over and over. Currently we do this about halfway around the field. Every morning. I find myself looking at my feet and slowing down and taking small steps. This is no longer walking the dog; this is trying not to boot the cat.
It occurred to me this past week that maybe there’s a lesson here. One observation I made is that it’s those closest to you who tend to trip you up. I may innocently intend to walk the dog. What actually happens is a cat stroll/scratch where I try really hard not to fall over the cat or propel her six feet in front of me.
Does that ever happen in your life? You are busy doing something productive and good; suddenly someone close to you causes you to take your eyes off the job, or even worse, take your eyes off Jesus Christ. They’ve set themselves up in front of you so that you have to modify your walk so that you don’t hurt them or so that you don’t hurt yourself. Is that what Solomon’s wives did? Did they trip him up and cause him to take his eyes off the goal?
I suspect that if you think about it long enough, you will think of someone you know whose children were raised in the church, taught to believe the way we believe, but then they strayed - maybe just a little. And the parents started making excuses for why those life decisions were okay - and then eventually, those choices were really not contrary to God’s will. And suddenly those parents found themselves out of fellowship with God. It’s kind of reminiscent of Jehoshaphat making a marriage alliance with Ahab, yes, that Ahab, Jezebel’s husband. Jehoshaphat’s son married Ahab’s daughter, you know, the wicked Athaliah. There were consequences to those actions. So why would we think that we can water down God’s law and not experience consequences - even for those closest to us?
Think about it. John Smith, three blocks over from your house, whom you have never met and has no interaction with you, no intersection in your life, what are the chances that he’s going to trip you up in your relationship with God? And why else would Jesus say, “He who does not hate mother, sister, brother, yes, even his own life, cannot be my disciple?” We have to put God first. Our future as the Bride of Christ depends upon it!
I have a cat and a dog that I dearly love. I love my family more than those pets. There are things that I value greatly in this world - things I work hard for. But Jesus warns us that something very close to us could offend us (If your eye offend thee, pluck it out!). It could trip us up. We must not hesitate to put God first every time.
One day we managed to get half of the way around the field before she noticed. She wanted to accompany us so badly that she cut straight across the field. Normally our path is around the edge. That way, if there’s something that spooks her, she can be up a tree before you can say lickety-split. But cutting across the field? That’s dangerous. An owl could swoop down and enjoy cat for dinner. So the day she cut across the field, I watched the behavior of a scaredy-cat. She would creep a few steps and then crouch and look back over her shoulder, then creep a few more steps. I was a little concerned that the owl would also observe her vulnerable state and took pity on her. I walked to meet her. She was delighted. Of course, the only way I know that is by how she insisted I scratch her chin once we met mid-field.
Recently, her MO is to watch carefully for “the walk” and zoom silently past me - and stop dead in front of me. If I’m not paying attention, it’s easy to boot the cat. That always results in me telling her that I’m sorry and that I didn’t mean to hurt her - and a scratch under the chin. So, of course, you know that she has decided that’s the way to get her morning quota of chin scratches - zip past me and stop dead in front of me - over and over. Currently we do this about halfway around the field. Every morning. I find myself looking at my feet and slowing down and taking small steps. This is no longer walking the dog; this is trying not to boot the cat.
It occurred to me this past week that maybe there’s a lesson here. One observation I made is that it’s those closest to you who tend to trip you up. I may innocently intend to walk the dog. What actually happens is a cat stroll/scratch where I try really hard not to fall over the cat or propel her six feet in front of me.
Does that ever happen in your life? You are busy doing something productive and good; suddenly someone close to you causes you to take your eyes off the job, or even worse, take your eyes off Jesus Christ. They’ve set themselves up in front of you so that you have to modify your walk so that you don’t hurt them or so that you don’t hurt yourself. Is that what Solomon’s wives did? Did they trip him up and cause him to take his eyes off the goal?
I suspect that if you think about it long enough, you will think of someone you know whose children were raised in the church, taught to believe the way we believe, but then they strayed - maybe just a little. And the parents started making excuses for why those life decisions were okay - and then eventually, those choices were really not contrary to God’s will. And suddenly those parents found themselves out of fellowship with God. It’s kind of reminiscent of Jehoshaphat making a marriage alliance with Ahab, yes, that Ahab, Jezebel’s husband. Jehoshaphat’s son married Ahab’s daughter, you know, the wicked Athaliah. There were consequences to those actions. So why would we think that we can water down God’s law and not experience consequences - even for those closest to us?
Think about it. John Smith, three blocks over from your house, whom you have never met and has no interaction with you, no intersection in your life, what are the chances that he’s going to trip you up in your relationship with God? And why else would Jesus say, “He who does not hate mother, sister, brother, yes, even his own life, cannot be my disciple?” We have to put God first. Our future as the Bride of Christ depends upon it!
I have a cat and a dog that I dearly love. I love my family more than those pets. There are things that I value greatly in this world - things I work hard for. But Jesus warns us that something very close to us could offend us (If your eye offend thee, pluck it out!). It could trip us up. We must not hesitate to put God first every time.
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