Thoughts on Walking a Puppy

Our new puppy loves to run and play and eat and bite and pee literally everywhere. One thing he hasn't quite learned yet is how to go for a walk.

It's interesting, because I have been greatly looking forward to long, fun walks with the dog. We will get there, I know. But for now, he mistrusts the leash. He has never worn one before and he doesn't understand that it is a tool enabling more freedom and joy for him. Instead, he sees it as some kind of sinister restriction of his fun and personal sovereignty (I am certain these are the terms in which he thinks.)

So, he resists the pull of the leash, tries to go his own way, and sometimes outright refuses to stand up. He is missing out on the sheer joy of running and walking and exploring all the beautiful environments I want to show him. Fear and distrust is making him miss out on the good gifts I have for him.

Does this sound familiar?

It is for freedom that we are set free. God wants us to receive and enjoy all the good gifts he has for us, now and in eternity. But don't we pull on that leash? Don't we insist that we know a better way to walk, and fear that we are surrendering our very selves if we opt for obedience?

The New Testament gives us a picture of love and obedience that seems at odds with our current prioritising of romantic love and personal freedom above all: "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." 2 John 1:6

Does God want to ruin our fun? Destroy our freedom? Withhold joy? I strongly suspect he does not. I think that God loves us, that he knows best for us, and that he wants us to know the fullness of fellowship and wonder and pleasure with him. I believe, along with Gregory of Nyssa (whose feast day it is!), that this joy and fellowship will increase eternally, that we will never finish being satisfied in our relationship with God, and that the very pursuit of this relationship will bring new satisfaction and reward every single day, forever.

But we don't get to set the terms of this relationship. God wants us to learn obedience to his commands because they are good for us and others. They are all about discovering how to walk in love. On our own we have the strangest tendency to choose that which is worst for us and for others, to corrupt love, and also to run out into traffic.

My puppy will learn to walk on the leash, and we will have years of joyful journeys together. Lord, help me likewise to learn good and godly obedience to your commands, so that I may fully rest in your love and the gifts you have for me, forever.