Puppy Treats

Maybe you’ve seen a puppy, not so well trained, trying to get a treat from his master’s hand. He jumps and scrambles, and does remarkable gymnastic feats, and all the while, his master holds the treat high overhead, simply saying, again and again, "Sit. Sit. Sit."

Eventually the puppy exhausts himself. He sits not because that’s what he’s supposed to do, but because that’s all he can do. He’s worn himself out completely, and still hasn’t managed to acquire the treat he so desperately desires.

This is us. Me.

They are all good things, these things I want. Not all terribly spiritual, but all of them good. So I try to attain them. I work hard. I try hard to be perfect. I try to be the perfect friend and the perfect business-woman and the perfect confidant. But I fail. I mess up bad, sometimes.

The Lord gives me a tiny taste of what I desire, and that simply makes the burden greater. I have to work faster. Harder. Have to be more perfect. I jump through all the hoops and do all the gymnastics and try so hard to earn­or at least partly deserve to be the recipient of-all the good things the Lord has promised.

But I still don’t have them. From where I stand, they are unattainable. He’s got them high overhead, where I could never reach.

I ask Him to take away the desires, to make me satisfied with what I do have. I only want to be content. But He doesn’t do it. I still want all these things just as badly as I ever have. They are still just as far away.

My heart is broken.

I’ve known for years I can’t depend on people. I’ve known for just about that long I can’t depend on myself. But if I can’t depend on God? What hope do I have, if my only helper doesn’t want to help me? What can I do, if my provider doesn’t want to give me good things? This is the Lord I want to love­in fact, I think I do—but how can I trust Him? Somehow I know He loves me, but that doesn’t help, because I have no confidence in His goodness.

So I crumble, crushed, to the ground at His feet. I have no energy left for anything else. There is not one single thing, from something as simple to losing five pounds or jogging a couple miles, to more complex lifetime goals, that I can accomplish or acquire for myself. I quit trying. There is nothing left in me for that.

Then I realize that He’s bending down, all the way down to this lump of broken clay at His feet, and placing my dreams in my hands.

We do have a choice. We can struggle our whole lives to attain, or we can accept His blessing.

Nothing Almighty God possesses can be bought.

It can only be received as a gift.

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