Dog joy.
That’s the only word for it. When I pull out his harness and clip on the leash,
pure unadulterated joy.
Which
is remarkable because I pull out the harness and clip on the leash every day.
Part of my sabbatical discipline has been the daily dog walk.
And,
for T-Bone, it's always new. It doesn’t matter that we take exactly the same
route every day, past the same telephone poles that he peed on yesterday. He
sniffs each one as if it were brand new, as if it were the first time. It
doesn’t matter how often we’ve passed the house with the barking Bichon tied
out in the front yard. I may wish that, just once, they’d keep that poor pup
inside, but I would swear that it’s the highlight of T-Bone’s day, every day. Every
squirrel we meet holds the potential of victory, never mind the leash. Every
pine cone is a waiting adventure, every leaf swirling in the wind an invitation
and a challenge.
T-Bone
and I walk pretty much the same route every day, the same bushes, the same barking
dogs, the same people on the street, the same squirrels. But you’d never know
that by my dog.
Of
course, you might think I’ve missed the kicker here. T-Bone, you might say, is
a dog, And it’s just not that hard to be optimistic and positive when you’re a
dog. Especially one who lives in sure and certain hope that, sometime around
8am and again at approximately 5pm, your food dish will magically appear filled
with kibble. It’s not that hard to turn your face into the wind on purpose when
you’re a dog who has been delivered from the jaws of death in a Tennessee shelter
and transferred to the kingdom of dog heaven in Lawrenceville where you are
loved unconditionally. Even in that moment when you do, and you will, steal the pork
chops off the kitchen cupboard. It’s not that hard to be bold and adventurous when
it’s never occurred to your doggy brain that your humans don’t have the whole world
in their hands.
When
you think about it, it should be just that easy for me, too. I’m a child of the God
who provides, who saves, who I believe in faith has the whole world in his
hands. But the world is a mess. And confidence and optimism and an adventurous
spirit are hard to come by.
They
found Nick Pratico’s body this week. My heart breaks for his family and his
friends, many of whom are kids in our church community who are again struggling
to understand why such pain and sorrow afflicts good people whom they love. My
heart breaks for the illness and hopelessness that bring any child to such a
place. My heart breaks for the dreams and the future that won’t be.
And
then there’s the rest of the week.
Our
national conversation and civic life have grown more bitter and broken and useless by
the day. Our political leaders spent this week tweeting insults at one another
while Puerto Ricans die for lack of clean water and electricity. And people who
claim the name of Jesus Christ jumped right in with both feet, defending sexual
abusers, providing scriptural cover for bigots and anti-Semites, heaping scorn and derision upon
those who would exercise their right to disagree. Not gonna lie. I’m a little
overwhelmed by it all and my soul is weary.
The
author of the Old Testament book of Lamentations wrote into the darkness and
desperation of his time: The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is
wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within
me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of
the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every
morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:19-24
A big part of my sabbatical discipline has
been the daily dog walk. And for T-Bone, no matter how often we do it, it never
gets old. I think that, in a doggy sort of way, T-Bone knows instinctively something that I, with my capacity to
imagine disaster, too often forget. God has the whole world in his hands.
Love never ceases. Mercy never comes to an end.
In the grace of God, life is new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
T-Bone and I are going for a walk. There will be squirrels.
No comments:
Post a Comment