Walking the Dogs

This morning, I was walking the dogs around the block where we are staying for the weekend. Since we didn’t have the harnesses we use at home, both dogs were straining with every single step trying to go just a little farther than the leash would allow. The entire two laps around the block they were pulling hard on the leashes, which made them strain to get breaths and made it hard for me to hold on to them.

On the second lap, it struck me what a parallel this is to human life. Maggie and Scooter love to run free. When they get out, they go for awhile. Maggie is a natural hunter and Scooter is a natural at following the leader, so he goes, too. But they’ll only really take off if they don’t have their leashes attached.

The amazing thing about our dogs is that even if I drop the leash, they will only go so far before stopping. They feel the tug of the leash as it drags the ground, even though they could run forever if they wanted to.

I spent much of an entire day this week with a dear friend who is looking for the next chapter is his life. I was helping him walk through the process of merging his skills with his passion and the things in which he finds meaning. We talked about how the sense of duty—which can be a beautiful thing—bound him to some relationships and tasks that he is now free from (because he finished them well, not because he abdicated his role). 

Now that he is free, he was still living with the leash dragging the ground as if still bound by the duties of the past. Sometimes God wants us to cut the cord to the things that keep us from being truly free.

We are built for adventure, but we can never forget that we have tags that remind us where our home is.

“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.”  Galatians 5:1 (New Living Translation)