I have a close friend who is waiting for her family to be given government permission to open a branch office of an existing company in a restricted Muslim country. It seems they are made to take 3 steps forward, 2 steps back, and sometimes 10 steps back all at one time! I've been so encouraged by the faith and faithfulness of her and her husband as they go through this process. She wrote this to me a few days ago:
"Lately I have been having such a struggle with the Lord over different issues that I have felt like my times with him have been devoid of the usual joy. I cried out to him asking for his help. Here’s how he answered:
I was sitting at the edge of a field when a woman and her dog came onto the field to play with a big red ball. The Lord said to me, “Watch this…it is for you.” I sat there attentively watching the woman play ball with her dog. Back and forth they played. The master threw the ball and the dog picked it up and joyfully brought it back to her master. The dog’s tail wagged and the joy was exuding. They were having a great time playing their game.
He said, “I am the master and you are the dog. We are playing a game. I throw you different issues in life, hurts, struggles, joys, challenges…you name it. Your job is to bring them right back to my feet. This allows you to remain in my joy – tail wagging. I’ll keep throwing things and your job is just to bring them back to my feet.”
There was one time when the dog brought the ball back to them master’s feel, but she didn’t drop it. She still held it in her mouth and stood at the master’s feet. She just wasn’t ready to drop it. Her tail
didn’t wag, she just sat there with the ball in her mouth. I noticed that the master never tried to yank the ball out of the dog’s mouth. The dog just sat there next to the master while the master gently petted the dog with the ball in her mouth. When she was ready, the dog dropped the ball and the master and the dog resumed their joyful game.
Another time the master threw the ball, but instead of catching the ball, the dog wandered off into the trees and was looking around at things. The master never yelled – “Hey! Get back here, you dog!” or
“Yo Dog! Get the ball!” Nor did the master go and drag the dog over to the ball or criticize it for being in the trees. Rather, the master stood there and patiently waited while the dog wandered in the trees. At last, the dog perked up and realized, “oh yeah, the ball…that’s right…forgot all about that one.” The dog went back to the ball and brought it back to her master’s feet and the catching and throwing of
the ball continued.
As we are continuing to look at our future with not a whole lot of clarity in terms of dates for our move to ---, I am daily, sometimes many times a day, needing to bring the “ball” back to the Lord and let
go of it at His feet."
Fetch,
Theresa Olive
What a great visual, Theresa!! I think we often make life more complicated than it needs to be, trying to figure out God's plan. Thanks for the reminder.
Posted by: Philomena | May 26, 2008 at 09:08 AM