As I was walking my dog the other day, there was a younger man in front of me coming onto the trail. He was running with a backpack on and he had a dog with him. The dog was off leash which always makes me a wee bit bit nervous, especially if its a big dog because my dog is smallish. It’s ironic that it makes me nervous because I walk my dog without a leash. I always have with my dogs over the years. This young man was shouting at his dog every 30 seconds. He was shouting as loud as he could “back.” Even when he was way ahead of me and I could not see him anymore I could still hear him shouting “back,’ and the anger level was noticeably increasing.

It made me think about how I communicate with my own dog. I never really speak to her at all when we are walking. She understands my “expectations.” It rarely has to be communicated by words. If I speak at all I get her immediate attention because its not typical for me to have to speak to her. We have an understanding. Now, that did not happen overnight. It took a significant portion of her younger life for her will to bend to my expectations. I was unmovable so if something was going to change it was going to be her. She had to understand her place.

When she finally yielded to my expectations then everything changed. Her life got a lot less complicated. Her freedom increased dramatically and her anxiety level was dramatically reduced. She had found her place in life. She understands my expectations without me having to speak. I know what God expects of me. I know His expectations. Not just through the written word but also through His Spirit. The older I got and the more I yielded the less He had to “speak to me,” in a sense. I never want to disappoint my Lord. I love Him and I desire to please Him.

When my dog displeases me her world is not right until she makes it right with me. She will come to me again and again and nuzzle into me. She has to know that things are right between us. she will not settle down until she senses that we are good. Us being “good,” is the foundation of her life. She knows my expectations and we know the Lord’s expectations for our lives.

We do not have a God who keeps shouting and screaming at us. He is not trying to dominate us, He is looking for cooperation with His expectations for us and love is the glue that holds it all together. I always want to be right with my Lord because I love Him and the last thing I want to do is disappoint Him. It makes me come to Him again and again with a broken and a contrite heart until I “know,” that we “are good.’ The young man who was screaming at his dog represents religion and its efforts to control people. The Lord who shares His expectations with us in love represents relationship.