On Being the Center of Attention

 

                                                  

“He must become greater; I must become less.”*

Our two dogs love to be patted and brushed, always asking for more attention. Teddy, the Golden Retriever, has a cute way of putting his paw out with a longing look in his eyes. “More, please,” he begs silently. 

On the other hand, Al and I have noticed that our black lab, TJ, tries to get attention by doing something naughty, especially if Teddy is the one who is being patted or if there is a change in the daily routine.

My mom used to say that we kids were pretty good on our own… until she got on the telephone. Then we’d start acting up, raising such a commotion that she would have to put down the phone and send us to our rooms. We succeeded in getting some attention anyway!

That is exactly what happened one afternoon when I was working on the computer and decided to wait for a few minutes before taking the dogs on their daily walk. After finishing with the emails, I poked my head into the sunroom only to find TJ engaged in ripping up a bag on the carpet.

 “Drop it!” I ordered as I rushed in.

What had TJ gotten into this time? It happened to be a bag of plant food that was stored on the back shelf of the plant stand in that room. The bag was ripped open and both dogs were busily consuming some of its contents which were strewn over the floor. How much had they eaten? And was it harmful?

It took extra time and energy to clean up the dirt and vacuum the carpet before we could go on our walk around the neighborhood. TJ’s behavior only resulted in more of a delay and in negative attention too. Oh well, explain that to a dog!

After our walk, the fertilizer began wreaking havoc on TJ, swelling up in his stomach. There soon was a lot more mess to clean up than dirt on the carpet. The dogs drank a lot of water that evening, being unusually thirsty.

Around 2:30 a.m. both dogs had to be let outside. I was able to go back to sleep, once they were bedded down and quiet. Then the same thing happened again at 6:30. Normally they make it through the night until about 7:30 the next morning.

After sleeping a bit, it was time to get up. Our small group was meeting online at 9:00 a.m. for its weekly Saturday “backyard church” service. Once the weather began to get too cold to meet in the backyard, we switched to meeting through a conference call format.

 Al and I told our friends about the mishap with the bag of fertilizer the previous day. Since it happened to be Al’s birthday and also happened to be close to the birthday of another member, Marge, we sang to them—a very disconnected version of “Happy Birthday.” It has been special sharing our lives and stories with each other, and supporting each other in good times as well as bad.

            That afternoon Jim and Sue Verhage, friends who attend our small church group, came over with a birthday present and a card for Al. We all had a good laugh as he received it—a box of Miracle Gro with a bow on top.

Thankfully, TJ and Teddy survived that little episode unharmed. Now we need a plan to divert TJ from his mischievous pranks in order to get our attention.  This desire to be the center of attention isn’t peculiar to our pets, however. It is something I have struggled with all my life, and even more so since accepting Christ.

When John the Baptist was approached by his disciples with the observation that crowds of people were being baptized by Jesus and were following Him, John replied that his mission in life was to point people to Jesus. John refused to take any attention away from Christ. There was no power struggle, no quarrel as to who was greater. Jesus’ own disciples even quarreled over that from time to time.

John had things in the right perspective…from an attitude of humility. May we always keep Jesus at the center of our lives, giving Him the glory and surrendering control to Him. He deserves nothing less!

 

*John 3:30 NIV