For quite a while the largest source of frustration has been Luna, the largest of them. Luna is a beautiful Great Dane who still acts like an energetic puppy despite her hugeness.. She bounces around, knocking things over, and is in no way graceful or lady-like. Luna is short for Lunatic, and she lives up to the name. Part of me knows we should let her go to another family who can more easily afford to feed her, since she eats more every day than the six smaller dogs in the yard. But I love her and selfishly want to keep her, especially since she is literally a huge deterrent to unwelcome guests. But one thing I didn't love or even like about her is how her exuberance made it impossible to keep her watered.
In all her scampering and bouncing around it never failed that no matter what I did in an attempt to prevent it, she would manage to dump her water. No matter where her water was placed, she would spill it, even when I tied a bucket to a tree, she still managed to waste it, making me have to work harder to make sure she didn't dehydrate, not to mention wasting gallons and gallons of water.
As the weather grew warmer and having water constantly available for all the dogs became more important, Leah conceived a great idea that would work for eight of the dogs at once. I bought a small kids wading pool, placed it where both of the Danes and six of the smaller dogs had easy access to it, filled it up and hoped that would solve the problem. It seemed to work for a short time, but soon our crazy Luna made it clear that she could manage to splash out most of the water in a day. The ground around the pool stayed wet and muddy, even more water was wasted than before, and it took even more time to water in the evening.
Frustrated that she just couldn't keep from wasting water and making meeting her needs more difficult, I finally moved the pool out of her reach, replaced her old water bowl and prepared to have to water her more often. Today the water is almost gone again and the ground around the pool is still wet. It appears that there is a small leak in the pool. I guess one of the dogs must have made a small puncture with their claws. I may have been blaming Luna for something that she wasn't doing. Even though it very well may have been her heavy paw that made the hole, it's possible that she wasn't splashing the water out after all.
No matter where I move the pool, it's going to leak. I can't keep the water level up and keep from wasting water as long as the hole exists. To simply keep adding water is an exercise in futility. Being frustrated with the dog won't help or solve anything. I need to find and patch the leak.
Life can be like this situation. Sometimes, no matter what we do we keep getting drained. Drained of our awareness of the presence of God, drained of faith, drained of energy, drained of hope, just drained and exhausted from the effort of trying to fill ourselves back up. We may scramble to attempt to prevent it, which uses more energy and resources and simply emphasizes the truth that we are drained and continuing to drain. The obvious cause, the things that once caused the majority of our problems may not even be the issue any more. But we continue to spend frustration and resources attempting to control the craziness we blame for the situation.
But if we can step back and see the situation for what it really is rather than reacting, the Spirit can show us that it isn't the old issue but something else. It's not the external at all, but rather we have a leak. There is only one thing that can keep us from being drained, and that is to let God repair the leak in our soul. We can change the external, change location, eliminate the access that crazy has, and other things, but regardless of how we react or what we do, until the hole is fixed, our life will be a constant battle to fill a leaky vessel.
Being drained and losing the water of life is an internal problem. The external changes we make and the things we try to deny access won't solve the problem and keep us filled. One reason we can find our rest in God is that He dwells within us. He is the internal solution that can keep us filled with what gives life regardless of the crazy externals.
Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
July 12, 2016.
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