Chasing Squirrels

 

While walking with one of our daughters in her Memphis neighborhood, her dog Loretta was suddenly attracted by a squirrel running towards a nearby tree.  The leash tightened, but instead of just fiercely pulling the dog back and shouting “No!”, our daughter very calmly said, “Leave it.”  Loretta looked at her prey for a moment more, but then just walked on down the sidewalk.  The situation was turned around not by a harsh command, or even by physical restraint, but by what they had practiced on many such daily walks around the block. 

Leave it.  Loretta immediately knew what to do, because she had been taught and trained how to respond.   She possessed a tool in her toolbox for such a situation as this.

We have no idea what is coming across our path.

We too are distracted by curiosities of all shapes and sizes, fascinating things that promise what they cannot fulfill.  It’s not God’s lack of guidance, nor familiarity, nor the scale of difficulty that throws us off, but the strong scents of comfort, power, desire, and the momentary happiness of chasing an elusive and sometimes imaginary squirrel through the neighborhood.

God does not scream “STOP!” for no good reason.  He whispers, “Leave it.  There is so much more that I can give you.”

Our problem is that we try to do life alone, as if there is no God at all, or that what He says makes no difference.  “That thing over there will make you happy,” the adversary promised Eve and continues to promise us.

We forget the brokenness of the past, and the impossible thickets we have tried to navigate on our own, even while carrying the back-breaking weight of unwieldy, self-multiplying burdens.  Our memory tries to minimize the heart-ache so we can justify this present squirrel-chase.  We no longer call it a “temptation” when we really want it that bad.  Excuses and justifications come in multi-packs at Costco.  Always available, always way more than we will ever use.

What do we need to leave and keep on walking? How is God trying to guide us in this situation?  Are we listening to Him or to our own excuses?  What are we practicing in our little everyday choices?  Turn off that show, close that book right in the middle of a sentence, don’t even look at that website, navigate a viral relationship in a gracious and unexpected way, wear something different, decide ahead of time how to respond and not react, and make choices that change our trajectory.

If we are Christ-followers, nothing can remain the same.

What do we need to leave, lay down, pick up, hold tight, and run with?  We have no idea the consequences of sprinting after that squirrel, and then next week, something even more evasive in heavy traffic.

But perhaps even more, what do we need to cover in prayer and leave it?  Not abandoning deep concerns on the gravelly side of the road, but leaving it in our Father’s hands and designs.  Cover it in prayer, not suffocate it with increasing layers of angst.  Anxiety is not a form of praying.  Worry never makes things better.

Are we trying to take on something that is not ours to solve or control?  Are we avoiding what we do need to do?  Are we trying to hold tight in our arms, or on a leash, our pet desires and our favorite beloved anxieties?  Or are we trusting what God says in His Word:

For My thoughts are not Your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55. 8-9

Saturate it in prayer.  But then, leave it.  Give God some elbow room and see what He does with it.  Look for God’s redeeming work, aware when He motions us to step in, and when to leave it with Him in His goodness and in His timing. Even if we don’t understand.  Even when we think we know better than God.

The way we learn to walk with God around the block on an ordinary morning profoundly impacts how we will walk a year from now, twenty years from now, how we will finish our course, and what we leave behind as a legacy or witness for those around us…. and even for those yet unborn.

Prayer does not put us into control.  Praying helps us realize God is God, and we are not.  Prayer puts God in His rightful place.  And allows us to acknowledge and recognize that reality.

Prayer empowers us to live that way.  Every moment of praying prepares us for the next spin around the block.  Not just avoiding the potholes or ignoring those enticing squirrels or scents, but responding to His amazing trajectory for our lives of which we are not aware

Praying is how we get there.  Daily, even moment by moment, God aligns our hearts with His.  God helps us practice not impersonal “do this” behaviors, but how to “be His” in our walk with Him.  No leash needed.  Just loving Him.

And listening to God whisper, “Leave it.  I’ve got something far better for you.  Trust Me.”