From the Pastor's Pen

Dear friends,

Tuesday night I was moderating a brief called zoom Session meeting which was interrupted for the last five minutes by my howling basset hound, Theo.  The howling was repeated and persistent and had the elders snickering by the end of the meeting.  Once I turned off the meeting, I stood up to attend to my crying dog and happened to notice he was outside looking up at me in my second story window from where I run my zoom meetings.  Theo was looking directly into my face and howling for all he was worth.  I thought to myself, “Poor thing!  He’s so lonely for my attention he went outside to howl at my window!”  

I hurried down to give him some much needed attention only to realize loneliness was not the problem.  It turned out he was trapped!  We have recently fenced off the back yard because it has been reseeded, and we don’t want the dogs trampling the new growth.  It’s fenced in two sections and Theo had managed to get in to the smaller section but couldn’t figure out how to get out.  I’m afraid I laughed out loud at his dilemma and then quickly made an opening so he could go free.

How often we get ourselves caught in a set of circumstances or a situation in which we feel trapped.  I find in such situations that a good howling to the Lord is well worth the effort.  Not only do I feel better for the catharsis, but often the Lord comes to my rescue.  It’s not usually miraculous.  The rescue comes in a new way to thing about things, or a solution I hadn’t thought of.  I suppose some might say it’s just my creativity puzzling things together, but I thank the Lord never the less.  I figure any creativity I have is a gift of God, and I find it difficult to measure where my efforts end and the Spirit intervene. 

The writer of proverbs says,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

    and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3: 5-6

Peace,

Pr. Sally