Hearing…and Responding!

   Do you ever have a time in your life when something unexpected happens that causes you to have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach and you think, “Oh no! Now what?” That was my experience a few days ago, when I let our two dogs out for their afternoon excursion around the yard. Usually I make sure all of the gates are closed ahead of time; however, even though the thought occurred to me, I didn’t go out and look.

   There is one gate in particular along the driveway which gets high usage every day. We try hard to keep it as well as the other gates closed because one of our dogs, Teddy, tends to run off to unknown parts of the countryside if he escapes! Even though Teddy hears us calling, he doesn’t pay any attention, but keeps on going with TJ, his devoted buddy, following close behind. This all adds up to a great adventure for them, but a nerve wracking experience for us as we try to figure out where they went.

   Ok, so you know what happened on that afternoon! I stayed in the backyard with TJ, throwing the Frisbee for several minutes, which is our normal routine. After we were both tired, TJ went out to the front of the property looking for Teddy. The first thing I spotted after rounding the corner of the house was the open gate. “Oh no!”

   It was unusually quiet, with no sign of the dogs anywhere.TJ somehow had quickly tracked Teddy down, but I didn’t have any idea where they had gone. It wouldn’t do any good to just call them—Teddy had failed that test too many times.

   I went back to the shed to get their leashes and then found Al. He decided to drive along Globe, while I crossed the street to check out their favorite spot—our neighbor’s big pond. No sign of them there. Two young men were standing out on their driveway about a block away, but they hadn’t seen the dogs.

   A bicyclist, coming from the opposite direction hadn’t seen them either, which meant they had to be somewhere fairly close to our house. So, I turned around and walked down our long graveled driveway, intending to ask our closest neighbors if they had seen Teddy or TJ. But before I could get to their house, a yellow body, followed by a smaller black one raced along the fence in their back pasture. Guess who? The dogs had somehow crawled under the fence and once inside, couldn’t get out.

   Our neighbor, Josh came out to help, but thankfully we didn’t have to chase them. Both dogs came to his gate when they saw me. Al drove up at the same time after several minutes of searching up and down the road.  He and I were both upset about the open gate. Neither of us wanted to have the dogs hit by a car or for that matter running through other people’s property.  

   But it really wasn’t their fault. Rather, it was my fault for not responding to the feeling that the gates should be checked. It would have spared us all a lot of anxiety and wasted energy if I had just gone around to that side gate and looked.

   How many times do I get little promptings like that and just ignore them? I want to learn to listen when God speaks to me through a quiet, inner ‘voice’ and follow it up by obeying what He is telling me to do. Maybe Teddy and I both have the same problem! Help us, Lord!

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26 NIV

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25 NIV