4:00 PM
I made some awesome chicken this weekend, I'm not gonna lie. I hate to start off a blog just braggin' on myself like that, but sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do. I'm tellin' you thing thing was cooked just right, tender and juicy and had just the perfect amount of spices and seasonings on it to make your mouth water. The smell filled out entire house, our place was saturated with the aroma of "delicious" as I took my plate over to the coffee table and sat down. After one bite into my chicken, I out down my plate I walked to the kitchen to get a drink. When I returned, what did I see...
GWEN!
For those of you who don't know, Gwen is one of our two beagles (and the one that's always getting into trouble). There she was, on her hind legs, her front paws on the coffee table with her nose in my plate. I quickly saw where this was headed and without hesitation, raced back into the living room over to the coffee table yelling her name in a tone she wouldn't soon forget!
She looked over at me, her tongue hanging out, and looked back at the chicken... it was time for her to make a decision.
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I relate a lot to Gwen. Of our two dogs, she's the one I'd say I'm most similar to. She's always getting into trouble, running away and creating disaster after disaster after disaster - but for some reason (despite how mad I may get) I love that stupid dog. I've threatened to get rid of her, beat her, the whole nine yards, but most of that is out of sheer frustration with her disobedience (although I'd be lying if I said she hasn't been swatted a time or two or three).
* * *
And so there we were. It was as if she was dangling over the edge of a cliff, one paw left on the edge as I slowly crept towards her. I called her name and she looked at me, dropped down off the coffee table and left the chicken on the plate. I'd caught her up to no good (again) but this time I'd managed to save my dinner before disaster could strike!
And then it hit me. My intention was never to "tempt" Gwen with my dinner; I'd just sat my plate down and went to take care of a secondary need, and in the midst of my preoccupation with Need #2, I'd left a plate of chicken within paw's reach of poor little Gwenny.
Was this somehow her fault? I mean she was created to eat, right? If it smelled so good to me I can only imagine what it must have smelled like to her, with that super-ultra dog nose of hers, and I just left it there in front of her, for the taking. Her natural reaction to the chicken was to eat it but just because it was natural doesn't mean it was right. It definitely wasn't the response I was looking for her to react with!
Have you ever felt that way? Like God just set you up to fail? There "it" was (and I'm sure you know what to substitute the "it" with) right in front of you, yours for the taking, and all you had to do was walk over to the coffee table, pick up the chicken and eat it, but right as you were about to, you heard His voice...
CHRISTOPHER!
Unfortunately I don't listen as well as Gwen does. It's just a fact and I can admit it. It's not that I'm not proud of that, but it's true... I guess I'm still being "trained", but I like chicken!
In the past, my reaction has always been to shift blame, move the fault to someone or something else. The external circumstances or situations (that I put myself in, of course) were what dictated the outcomes of the situations in my life I experienced. There may have been some participation from yours truly, but it was never really MY fault... how could it be?
But if my dog can obey, then I suppose that I can obey too... I don't know what exactly your "chicken" might be, but I do know listening to the One who is calling your name is definitely worth it.
Before my meal was completed, I had to give Gwen some of that chicken, despite how good it was. I did it because she listened (and I think it made her more responsive to listening again).
There's something powerful that happens when we listen... And when we listen, we begin to learn. Like Jeremiah 29:11 says, His plan is not to harm us, it is for good, if only we'll listen to Him...