Let my soul live that it may praise You,

And let Your ordinances help me.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant,

For I do not forget Your commandments.

Psalm 119:175-176

 

This morning I awoke and crawled out of bed, grabbed the laundry basket full of dirty clothes that I had waiting on me at the foot of the bed, and headed to the laundry room to start a load. I then started my coffee and while it was brewing took the dog out. I got distracted with the weeds in the flower bed and began pulling them out and then looked up to realize that our dog had run off… again.

All this and I haven’t even had my first cup of coffee yet…

So I pour my cup of coffee, unwrap my poptart, grab my Bible and notebook and head outside for my prayer and study time… trying to ignore the fact that the dog is no where to be seen. Which doesn’t go to well…

I go back inside get the car keys and drive around the neighborhood in my pj’s searching out this dog that aggravates the snot out of me because if I turn my back on him for a split second he is off somewhere in the unknown. I cruise through once and see him no where.

I go back in the house, fix a fresh cup of coffee, and come back outside to hopefully be still and spend some time with my God and Father… ugh… nope.

I begin my prayer, “Oh Father, how close I can feel with You at times and others how far away. How easily I can become caught up in this world and the next be so ready to leave it all behind. I just want to forever pursue You…” this is as far as I get and I cannot shake my need to get up and go find that dog.

I call him “Dog” everyone else calls him “Amos”

After another slow cruise through the ‘hood I find the distracted sucker coming out of the woods behind a house at the curve end of our road. Guilt all over the dog’s face. So once again I am there in the middle of the road, in my pj’s, yelling at “Dog” to get home. This time at least he comes when I call. I get in the car, roll the window down, and he runs beside the car all the way home, even ignoring the other dogs that usually also distract him and cause him to ignore my “Dog! Get in the house!”

So he goes in his kennel time-out. I fix another cup of coffee, and now I sit still finally… by this time kids are outside waiting on the bus for school and they are loud of course. I begin to get aggravated that the dog has caused me to lose my quiet, still, time. I start to get up, pack up, and head in the house, but instead this time I stop, I choose to pray for the voices I hear. I choose to pray salvation over loud souls and I realize that this was God’s plan all along.

Now as I type this out… my God reminds me how that “Dog” is kind of like me (shhhh don’t tell my husband, he knows how mad this dog makes me most of the time). I head out to take care of the business at hand and so easily get distracted by the things of the world… not necessarily sinful things… just things. House payments, house sales, mortgage loans, gas prices, other people’s lack of responsibility, ball practice, pre-teen drama, internet disconnection, weeds in the garden, dirty dishes, pretty projects… just worldly distractions.

I wonder how many times my God has had to chase me down after I have wandered off somewhere in the unknown and has shook His head in holy aggravation at me and instead of calling me Nicole… calls out “Woman! Get back in focus!”

How thankful I am that although I pray and speak my desire to forever pursue my God… the truth of the matter is that I am safe only because He chooses to get up and go out and forever pursue me.

So He told them this parable, saying, 

“ What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them,

does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture

and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 

When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Luke 15:3-5