I stared sadly at my Golden Retriever. Her normal 18-month-old spunk was missing
today. In fact, it had been missing for the past several days. Oh, she trotted
along beside me on our run all right, but instead of charging out huge figure
eights among the trees and taking off after gulls and geese, she simply sniffed
the grass at the side of the road, barely able to keep up.
I had seen her like this only one other time. It was the time I had been away
for 3 days and everyone in the house had thought that someone else had fed the
dog (See http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon10/hungry_dog.htm
for THAT story!). But this time, I hadn't been away. No one had forgotten to
feed her. In fact, her food dish was standing in the kitchen at the very moment,
filled to the brim!-As it had been for the past three days! Her lack of energy
wasn't related to NOT being fed, it was related to the fact that SHE refused to
eat! It gave a whole new meaning to the expression, "You can lead a horse to
water, but you can't make him drink!"
So why wasn't she eating? I knew the answer to this question. We were
hand-raising two baby Lineolated parakeets. These tiny creatures initially need
to be fed 6-7 times a day, and for the past several days, she had been forced to
watch me, HER "mom", feed-by hand!-these two tiny birds. With each progressing
feeding session, she had eaten less and less, until she finally stopped eating
completely. She wasn't eating because she was jealous that I would pay attention
to a creature other than her!
I didn't know what to do about it. I had been spending more time with her than
usual. In fact, in anticipation of this particular problem, my boys and I were
making an extra big effort to play with her. She was almost constantly involved
in a game of fetch or chase or "romp", all her favorites, and only rarely had
she been left on her chain to bask in the sun. She had even been allowed to swim
in the pond-her absolute favorite-even though it is still way too cold to swim!
What more could I do? I had to continue feeding the baby birds!
My only hope was that she would eventually be able to see beyond her petty
jealousy, that she would be able to recognize truth: That I still loved her as
much as ever, that she was still important to me, and especially that I WAS
still spending quality time with her, just as always!
As I thought about all of this, I became a little bit angry. Why couldn't she
see how petty her jealousy was, anyway? Why couldn't she see that the boys and I
was spending even more time than usual with her? Why couldn't she see that my
love was big enough for her AND two baby birds?
But my next thought made me stop dead in my tracks: I am JUST LIKE MY DOG!
I gulped, trying to dismiss this aggravating idea, but it wouldn't go away. Just
like my dog always had me there to play with her and take care of her, I have a
loving Heavenly Father Who provides for every one of my needs, Who loves me, Who
cares for me constantly, and Who desires more than anything to spend time with
me. He feeds me Spiritual food-His Word, His fellowship-on a daily basis. All I
have to do is "eat" it! Yet what do I tend to do when problems come along? I get
so focused on the "problem" that I can't concentrate on anything else. As a
result, Bible reading becomes rote and I stop spending intimate time with Him.
Sound familiar? Oh, our "baby birds" can come in many different shapes and
sizes. Some look suspiciously like financial problems, others like job loss and
relationship difficulties. And of course there are the "baby birds" of illness,
false accusations, and the consequences of our own bad decisions. But whatever
our "baby birds" look like, the deeper into the problems we are, the more likely
we become to stop spending that time with the Lord, to stop "eating" that
Spiritual food! And then we so often have the audacity to cry out, "Lord, where
ARE You! I NEED You! Why are You so far away?"
Why do we react this way? Because we become so focused on the situation at hand
that we fail to recognize the daily blessings, that during these hard times, God
pours out on us in triplicate! We get mad at God, we refuse to eat my Spiritual
Food, and the "baby birds" loom bigger and bigger!
So where does the solution lie? Stop focusing on the problems, the
circumstances, the sins. Start "eating" our "Spiritual food" by spending time
with the Lord in reading His Word and prayer. And while we're at it, we need to
start focusing on finding all of the blessings that God DOES pour out on us
everyday! We need to remember how often He's given us reason to trust Him! We
have to start "ignoring" the "Baby birds" so that we can enjoy what God IS doing
for us!
When we got home from our walk, my dog finally DANED to eat. It was over. She
had finally stopped focusing on the baby birds. She had started realizing that
she STILL had most of my attention. What about us, friends? Shall we also start
looking beyond our "baby birds" and go back to eating our "Spiritual food"?
Lyn Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
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