Monday, October 22, 2018

Do we approach God like a cat or a dog?


We just got back from a week-long vacation and our cat, Luna, is showing us that she missed us. When I sat down for my devotions today, she jumped up on my lap and wanted me to pet her. For those of you who do not know, while I love cats, I am allergic. Every time I pet her, I need to go wash my hands before I touch my face or else I will breakout, particularly in my eyes. Since she needed some loving, I indulged her until I had enough and stopped. Surprisingly, she stayed on my lap for 5 minutes after I stopped. During that time, she was looking at the birds and acted like she wanted to go but never did. Finally, she jumped off and is laying down next to the sofa I am on.

If you haven’t experienced it, cats are different from dogs. Cats will come to you when they feel they need something. When they are finished, they walk away, or in the case of our cat, when she does not want you to pet her anymore, she will bite you. She is very lovey when she needs attention or food or water. Once you give that to her, she will ignore you. That is not the same as our dog that we had when I was growing up. Ginger would come up to me at any time and want to play or just me next to me. In general, cats are independent and only come when they can get something from you. Dogs want to just be with us regardless what we are doing. I wonder if they realize that they get something out of just being with us.

Before Luna jumped up, I read Psalm 4. In that Psalm, David says to God, “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.” Later on, he states “… the Lord will hear when I call to him.” David is expressing the truth that God is always with us and we can rely on him for what we need. That is a wonderful truth and as Christians, we need to be reminded of that daily.

What struck me today is that too often, I approach God like a cat and not like a dog. I know that God is always there but when I approach him, I try to get something out of him. Maybe, I need a word of encouragement. Maybe, I need to be rescued from my own sin. I come to him needy. But when I get what I want, I leave. I walk away satisfied and that I can do things by myself again. Like a cat, I walk away to be independent.

Instead, we should approach God like a dog approaches its owner. The dog is just happy to be with their owner and do whatever the owner wants. If the owner wants to play, great. If the owner wants to pet the dog, great. If the owner wants to feed the dog, great. If the owner just wants to sit with the dog, great. The dog just wants to be with its owner and gets something out of it by just being with the owner.

How much to we approach God with that anticipation and excitement of just being with God? How often are we excited to spend time with him? My to do list each day always gets in the way of me just relaxing and enjoying time with God. How do you approach God? How much do you enjoy spending time with him? What can you do to put everything aside to enjoy God today?

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