Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

I love to walk across the countryside.  I enjoy being out in nature with just my thoughts and my God.  As I walk, I pray, and my prayers are sometimes shaped and triggered by the things that strike me as I walk.  It could be a flower, the weather, something in the sky, or some kind of animal behavior.  The countryside is mostly rolling farmland that gently slopes down toward the cliffs at the sea.  There are well worn paths cutting through the fields and across the hedgerows.  In order to cross the boundaries you have to climb over stiles.  Most are made of stone and are quiet old.  It has been fun to explore the various paths through the fields and along the coast.

Lately, I have had additional company in the form of our new puppy.  She minds pretty well these days and has been an interesting addition.  I have been training her to go over the stiles.  Over the last week or so she has really be catching on.  It's been amusing to have her clamor up to the top only to be stymied by the last big step.  She has to wait for me to help her over the last bit.  This is all well and good for now, but she will soon be too heavy for me to do this easily over the tallest stiles.  However, there is a solution near at hand. There are conveniently located gates through which the livestock can be driven near these tall stiles.  So, today I decided to have her go under the gates and wait for me on the otherside while I went over the stile.  She already knows how to sit and to stay so I led her under the gate and told her to sit and stay while I backtracked and made my way over the stile.

Before I had made my way down the stile, there was a little face peering over the top of the stile inquisitively from the field I had just left.  Instead of trusting that I was not going to leave her, she had quickly and quietly followed me back to the stile to cross over the way we always had.  She repeated this behavior at the next stile as well.  It seems it was just too much for her to believe that I really meant the instructions I had given her, that I wanted her to do something different than she had done before.  Shea already "knew" what I wanted her to do from previous experience.

As I laughingly reflected on this talking about it alternatively with my dog and with my God, I was suddenly struck by the lesson.  How often do I assume what God wants me to do instead of fixing my eyes on Him and waiting for His direction?  How often do I assume that the way I have always done it is the right way, even when He seems to be directing me to do something different?  Going over the stiles was the best way for the puppy when we started our walks together, but it is time for her to start learning how to do it differently.  She is growing, and is ready for a new way.  It will take time for her to unlearn the old way and for the new way to feel right, to become the new normal.  It should be relatively easy as she is a young dog who is full of trust and a desire to please.

I wonder how easy it will be for this old dog to be trained by my Master.  May I be filled with trust and a desire to please Him.  May I learn to listen and not just to assume because I have "been down this path before".   May I surrender my pride and self-reliance, my feeling that I know the right way.  May I be willing and able to receive His direction and to follow His instructions even when they don't "feel right" as He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.