Maybe We All Need Leashes

So I've been dogsitting two little moppets this week.  And they are adorable and fluffy and all sorts of fun, as well as sporting all sorts of fur.  The fur has been flying fast and furious around here.

And I walk them early in the morning, once around the block, just so they can feel like they've got a handle on things in the neighborhood.  And because they're mutts and have a bit of the stubborn streak about them, it turns out we have different ideas about which way to go.

I prefer the forward route, the one that gets us home the quickest.  They prefer the Stop And Sniff Everything, Hey Wait There's Some Kind Of Something Over There That Must Be Investigated Right NOW route.  So there's a lot of this going on.

Sometimes I think it must be easy to be a dog. You have everything provided for you (though eating kibble day after day after day probably gets old.) Someone else is making about 70 to 80 percent of the Big Important Decisions for you (When do you get food?  When do you get to go outside? When do you get a tummy rub?) Yes, you are on a leash, but at least there's someone on the other end of the leash, a lovely person like myself.  And that person will lead you, so you always know where you're going.  Even if you don't initially want to go that route, the person holding your leash knows what's best, and why that is the best way to go.

But what about people and God?  We're not on a leash, thanks to the whole free will thing. So if we're lunging off in a possibly Not Good direction, we don't have a leash to stop us.

A Happy Chipper Christian might do the dog pull thing - God, I REALLY wanna go over there and check that thing out.  But I wanna huddle with you, first.  Do you want me to do that?  Do you want me to have this job?  Do you want me to date ANYONE? Do you want me to sell a script?  Do you want me to move to a bigger place?  WHY NOT!?  WHY DON'T YOU WANT FOR ME WHAT I WANT FOR ME!  LUNGE!  LUNGE!  LUNGE TOWARDS THE THING I CANNOT HAVE!

If there's no leash to stop us, and if we want it bad enough, we'll dive for it, sure we will.  But then the elusive Squirrel As Metaphor For Thing You Want scampers up a tree and you are quite put out, and you come trotting back to God God, can you please get that squirrel for me?  Because I really really want it.  Why don't you want it for me?

I'm a big fan of free will, but sometimes, I think we all could use the leash at times.  It would certainly save a lot of time. Says me.