"For God speaks in one way and in two, though people do not perceive it." -- Job 33:14
I can't imagine how imagine how frustrated God must become with us at times, given that he speaks freely and often through the Holy Spirit to each of us, and yet, so often we are completely oblivious to the message.
Maybe we don't believe that God is speaking to us. ... Or maybe we deliberately tune our receptors out so that they do not pick up the Holy Spirit's messages. ... Or maybe we just flat out confuse God's wisdom as we jumble it up with our own justifications for our actions, or lack there of.
Multiplied by the billions of his beloved children, and I would think the sheer volume of our obtuseness would frustrate even the patient Creator of the Universe at some point!
As in ... God must be thinking: "Wait, what? ... That is not what I told you to do, Devlyn! Crikeys, my man! How could I be any more clear about this! Love your neighbor ... each and every neighbor!"
Now imagine that over and over billions of times ... every ... single ... day. ... And, I think, we get a true picture of how much God really does love us!
Like much of the United States these past days, we've been enduring a brutal stretch of arctic cold for days on end. In fact, it's been so cold that we haven't been able to let our dogs outside for more than the required minutes needed to answer Nature's call, and then we call them right back in.
Now, we have two huskies. ... And they are fairly young huskies at that, only 5 and 2 years old. ... So, needless to say, they have ENERGY!
Huskies need to be walked every day, lest they become feisty and rambunctious. And two busy pups can only play tug in the house for so many hours as a substitute before becoming bored. Especially day after day after day ... after freezing cold day.
We are fortunate because the dogs are generally very well behaved. And usually, as long as we are able to get in our daily walk after work, they're fairly subdued through the evening hours. Even the though the young Master Howie gets a bit restless without some supplemental play as well.
So these past five artic days have been brutal not only for us humans, but even more so for the puppers. Dogs are creatures of habit, just like us humans. And our dogs are used to their daily walk, usually after I get home from work.
And so, as the days in which we had to keep Gus Gus and Howie indoors started to mount this past weekend, both dogs slowly started getting more and more exhausted with being cooped up indoors. They would plaintively stare at us when I didn't get ready to take them on their walk each night.
And for, Howie, who's especially still filled with young dog energy, this has felt like an unfair captivity. He actually started getting so antsy that he started committing petty crimes he knew were going to get him in trouble. ... But, I'm sure in his head, he was thinking, "Maybe, just maybe, stealing these shoes and socks might be enough to convince Dad to get off his keister and take us for a walk, right?" ... Too a dog's mind, I'm sure it was worth a try!
And, guess what? ... It ultimately worked! ... By Monday afternoon, it was apparent that if we did not get these dogs outside pronto, we were going to have some serious shenanigans on our hands.
So, as I wrapped up work for the day, Shelley and I devised a plan to sneak each dog out of the house one by one for a short walk to give them some exercise and mental stimulation. ... And, you know what? ... It worked too! ... The walks weren't long but they were enough to break the monotony of being stuck inside for four consecutive days, and we had the first peaceful evening we'd had since midweek last week as the dogs peacefully snoozed away the night in the living room with us.
But before that peace, there was the walks. And, as you can imagine, one gets a little philosophical when they are out walking their dogs in negative 15 degree windchills!
How long did I walk each dog? Not long! As short as we dared! ... But it was still long enough for me to think to myself that Shelley and I got a little taste of what it must be like to be God over the weekend when we were talking with the dogs.
What do I mean?
Well, many times throughout the weekend when the dogs exhibited their usual antsy whimpering about wanting to go for a walk, we'd take turns telling them that it was too cold to be safe outside, and that what we were foregoing the walks for their own good.
But, you know, they are dogs. So just exactly what about this well meaning parental discourse did we think they were going understand?
I'm pretty sure -- that despite our belief that our dogs are superior beings -- all our dogs heard from our mouths sounded like the teacher on the old Charlie Brown cartoons: "Wah, wah wah, wah. Wah wahhhh wah wahh wah." ... Or something similar, at least.
It was this revelation that I had on the walks seeing how happy our dogs were to be out in the miserable cold. They were oblivious to our verbal warnings about how dangerous the weather was, and they wantonly enjoyed every minute I allowed them to be out. ... Because they just didn't know any better, and we couldn't communicate effectively with them.
Oh, how this must sound familiar to a God who issues us so many similar warnings about our questionable behaviors and decisions. And yet God can only watch us figuratively beg to be taken out for a walk in weather that could literally mean our demise. The symbolism here is just too juicy not to take note of!
God speaks to us, and we hear exactly what our dogs hear when we speak to them: "Wah, wah wah, wah. Wah wahhhh wah wahh wah." ... And God must think, "How else can I be any clearer! And yet they still don't understand!"
Gus Gus and Howie provided Shelley and I with a good lesson this weekend about being more attentive to listening and understanding God's messages. This week I'm going to try to tune in a little more attentively! ... Amen!
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