July 29, 2020. Today we brought our pup (yes, that’s our dog Moca, not a small horse in those pictures) with us to Indian Lake. He loves the dog park and we love exploring it with him. He is a gentle giant and such a good listener in so many ways. However, we don’t quite have the off-leash recall down yet (our bad, not Moca’s). Because he can only learn if we keep practicing, we practiced more today!
To practice, we asked him to sit; we dropped his leash; we asked him to come. Pretty simple. But today, Moca decided to wander off the path and into the prairie. We could still see him and he could see us. Yet, despite our calling, he did not come. Actually, when one of us called, he’d stop what he was doing, look back at us, survey his options, and then continue on with whatever he was doing. He never ran away. He didn’t want to. He just didn’t want to come.
If you’ve read any of these posts before, you may already suspect…This post is not actually about Moca’s recall. It’s about our own.
(Side note: I feel like I need to make a quick public service announcement before launching into my metaphor of the day. Nick briefly worked for Dr. Patricia McConnell. She is not only a world renowned animal behaviorist but a gifted author and beautiful human being. She has written the book (quite literally) on strategies for dog recall. For more on strategies for effective recall see Patricia’s books. We know we’ll be brushing up on those!)
Now back to KNEP hikes. There we were with our dog continuing to do his own thing. The kids and I grew increasingly worried. Nick remained steadily confident. We would say, “Dada, go get him. What if he runs away?” Nick would respond with, “He won’t.” And the reality is, he didn’t. While he didn’t exactly come running back to us, he never got so far away that Nick couldn’t get him, if need be. And, eventually, Moca found his way back to us.
My faith journey has, and continues to look similar to Moca’s. God gives me free will to forge ahead but never am I so far away that I’m lost. Truth be told, I’ve felt lost at times (and likely will again). Yet, I don’t think I can ever be completely lost from God. That’s the difference between a dog and it’s humans vs. humans and their God. For me, God isn’t outside of me commanding me one way or another. God’s spirit lives in me. No matter how far I wander (and my, oh my, have I wandered), nothing can separate me from the love of God because that love lives within me.
There are so many other things I’d love to share. Like how I, admittedly, ignore God (kind of like Moca “ignored” us)….like how I sometimes get so distracted by the things of the world that I don’t, at first, hear God’s instructions (just like Moca in the prairie)…but this post is lengthy and one can only extend a metaphor for so long before the readers drop off (assuming you’re even still reading this far).
There are so many things I’d love to share because God shared so much with me on this hike. But for now, I’ll try and quiet my own voice so I can hear God’s call.
KNEP Hikes 