Walking the dog

I was walking our dog Charlie this morning. He’s a rescue dog, a black lab, and he was from a farm where he ran free most of the time. When we take him out we can’t let him loose or he runs away. So we walk him several times a day. When we first got him being led by a lease was not something he was used to. Everything he heard, saw, or smelled made him dart this way and that to investigate. It is his instinct to do that. For the person holding him it’s quite frustrating. Through a series of disciplines and rewards Charlie is getting better and stays by our side most of the time. I got to thinking this must be how God feels with us. When we first start following him we are used to following our old nature. All of our natural tendencies tell us to go this way and that but God has a different path for us. It reminds me of Peter. In Matthew 14 Jesus was walking towards his disciples who were in a boat. He was walking on the water. They were scared for sure and had doubts even after Jesus told them not to be afraid. Peter said to Jesus, if it’s really you call me out to you on the water. So Jesus said come. Peter gets out of the boat. He puts his foot on the water and begins to walk out to Jesus! Everything was going fine. Then the distraction comes. He was a fisherman. Storms were a bad thing to fisherman and they were in a storm on the lake. At first it wasn’t a big deal because he had his mind on Jesus and that was his focus but then the storm caught his attention. Fear set in and he took his mind off of Jesus and onto the storm and what happens next? That’s right. He began to sink. Jesus was right there the whole time just like he is for us. The problem wasn’t the storm. The problem was that in Peters mind the problem, or the distraction, got bigger to him than Jesus. I heard a saying the other day that is fitting here. Instead of glancing at Jesus and gazing on our problem we should glance at our problem and gaze on Jesus. Jesus pulled Peter to safety just like I do Charlie and he’s there to pull us in too. As we learn more about Jesus, our master, we learn more about how he wants us to go and like Charlie we become more obedient and life then is better for us and our Master!! Dear Jesus thank you for never letting go of us. Thank you for redirecting our focus when our instinct is to run here and there. Keep us safe and may our eyes always be on you in the storms!!