Running Starts

I love agility class not only because it is such fun and exercise for Asherel and Honeybun, but also because it is replete with symbolism I can use to hear God. We had our first class of the new semester and every kind of agility temperament was in that one class.

There was Honeybun, the slow starter, who sniffs the grass and is not really engaged with her handler till partway through the run. There is Drew the standard poodle who is a cannonball of love and can hardly contain himself with his boundless energy of delight with humans and when released from the start line, either rockets over the jumps like a superball, or makes a beeline for the nearest person to lick. There is Dixie, the Border Collie who performs beautifully whether there is a treat offered or not, but just out of obedience and love is often flawless. And there is the crazy cocker spaniel whose name eludes me at the moment, but who was fantastic as long as his eye was on his owner, but if he got distracted would explode off course and circle the field like a whirling dervish. It is funny I forget that dog's name since his owner yelled it thousands of times when the little cocker would forget this was agility class and think it was "racing the perimeter of the fence" class instead. Oh yes- it was Flynn, as in Errol Flynn the famous actor who as a child was expelled from several schools in Tasmania. That is an appropriate name for the cocker spaniel Flynn, who can be brilliant in class, but can also be a Tasmanian devil, out of control and completely ignorant of his owner's commands.

What struck me last night is how the varying dogs approach the agility course is also how varying people approach God. There is the slow starter who is not very interested, but plods along at first and gains interest and devotion as time goes on. There is the enthusiastic one who longs to please God but gets sidetracked to his detriment by all his passions of the world. There is the dutiful and obedient follower, who completes the requirements out of love, but perhaps not quite the ecstasy God should engender. Then there is the self absorbed one, who will follow if it serves his needs at the moment, and has intermittent periods of true worship, but easily falls back into a life of sin and disobedience. I think I have been all of these characters at one time or another.

The instructor Bobbie, watched Asherel with our slow starter Honeybun, who needed countless reminders to pay attention on the start line. Asherel would tell her sit, walk away, and Honeybun's nose would be in the grass sniffing away, probably seeking errant meatballs. Bobbie suggested that Asherel not have Honeybun sit and wait while Asherel set up a few jumps away.
"Do a running start," suggested Bobbie,"Get her attention, rev her up, and run with her."
Asherel did so, and Honeybun and she launched together over the course. Honeybun was so excited that as she cleared jump number 3, she barked in joy. I have never ever heard Honeybun speak in excitement on the agility field.

And it occurred to me that when my worship, when my approach to God is slow to start, slow to ignite, distracted, and not focused properly..... it often helps me if someone comes alongside me, reminding and cajoling and encouraging, and with a running start we launch upwards together.

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1 Thessalonians 5:10-12

¹⁰He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.