Surviving Chaos

This morning lady, my dog, and I are sitting out on the porch enjoying the early morning air. While I read from the bible, something caught Lady’s attention. It’s wasn’t the occasional jogger or squirrel. Usually I can avert her attentions away from such happenings. No, this morning’s distraction came from another source, a cat. Our landlord has an outside cat who drives Lady crazy. And in our moment of peace, the cat became the sole point of her focus. 

 

I tried to comfort and encourage her, yet her eyes stayed focused on the cat. At one point I thought of letting her loose to chase down the cat. But I knew such action would result in a devastating outcome. I thought about chasing down the cat myself, but the landlord was parked outside. Besides, how silly would it be to see a grown man chasing down a domesticated cat? So instead, I took her head in my hands, lifted it towards mine, and held her close. She fought me, pulling away, trying to loosen my grasp, but I stayed firm. Lady’s eyes desired me to let go. She wanted to see the cat and she was determined to move her focus towards the beast. 

 

Ever notice we have a similar reaction to temptation. There will be something in our sight that looks appealing but will cause us to fall. We become hyper focused on it, noticing nothing else around us. God trys to get our attention and directs us towards focusing on him, but the allure of temptation draws our eyes away.

 

Some would say God is mean and uncaring, trying to hold us back. Truth is he could let us go, allowing us to chase down whatever is keeping our focus. But he knows full well the end results would be devastating. He could chase down the sin himself but that would be out of his character and we would learn nothing. Instead he holds our head and lifts it towards him, turning our focus on him. We can fight him or concede to his authority. We can see him as God or we can continue to be enticed by the allure of temptation. The choice is ours.