Walkies” can sometimes be a test of willpower between Molly and me. When we started our daily walking routine, Molly hated the harness. I tried one that went over her torso. It didn’t work because she easily pulled out of it.
Problem!
Next, we tried the neck/body harness. It worked better except for the time when she got out of it while we were walking on the pavement down the main road! Freedom!!! Off she went in a flurry of excitement. She was free to run…anywhere! And ran she did, across the street and back, several times, especially when she wanted to face, at close quarters but on the other side of the gate, of course, that BIG dog that irritated her the most!
Fortunately, we were close to the side street that took us back home. I nonchalantly walked down the road and, true to habit, she followed me until we reached our own gate.
The next time she escaped her harness, now a few yours older, she stood dead still, looked up at me and asked, with her eyes, “Now what must I do?” I quickly secured her in her harness, grateful that she had come of age!
These days, my mature older dog has another way of enforcing her reluctance to walk…she puts on brakes on all four legs, as efficiently as the ABS braking system in my car! I know that part of her problem is the lesion in her spine that sometimes makes walking painful. However, it’s that look of defiance when she puts on brakes that makes me think it’s also a power struggle.
So, I ask her, “Molly, are you walking or balking?”
How like us when we don’t want to do God’s will! We put on our inner brakes with that attitude of defiance that says, “No, I don’t want to do it!”
I find this attitude rising up in me when I need to put right something I have done wrong. My pride, my ego, my perceived reputation is at stake. I must defend myself at all costs!
What about those times when the Lord requires me to do something that will cost me? Someone needs help. My involvement may cost me time, effort, money or whatever the Lord asks of me. My first response may be…brakes on all four paws! It may take a little time for me to release the brakes and do as I am told!
It’s a long, hard lesson for me to learn to walk with God, not to balk at God. Sometimes my old, emotional pain gets in the way of my willingness to obey. I take time to deal with the “what ifs” of reluctance or fear, my “no” of unbelief, my hesitance to cast myself on the Lord and step into the unknown.
God’s ministry in our hearts is, probably, 90% focused on teaching us faith, trust, reliance on Him because He is faithful, what He says is true, and what He wants of us is obedience without fear. He is always working, in all things, for our good and His glory.
Although Molly can’t understand that walking is for our good, I CAN understand that my Father is always working what is good for me. Why, then, am I balking instead of walking with the Lord? It’s that old nature again, the self-will with which I was born. It takes a lifetime of learning to accept the “leash” of obedience and walk where the Master leads me.