When the Dog Bites

A few days ago, I was out walking and long story short, got bitten in the leg by a dog. Of course, I had stopped carrying my pepper spray, thinking I really didn’t need it. How wrong I was! While the bite had broken the skin and left some bruising, it fortunately wasn’t serious. What affected me more was how frightening the situation had been for me, especially since the dog continued to follow me across the road to a neighbor’s house where I took refuge.  For the rest of the night, each time I had to share the story with someone, I began to shake. The incident was so unexpected, my leg hurt like crazy, and I felt a measure of trauma from it. I crawled into bed after taking a hot shower, drank a cup of tea, used essential oils to help foster a sense of peace and calm within me and had my husband hold me. I just wanted all to be right with my world again.

There was one point in the evening when Bri asked me if I had talked to Jesus about what had happened. I was NOT in a frame of mind to have a conversation yet. I didn’t even feel like I could think straight at that point! Then, the next morning I went to church and a friend who had seen my post about having been bitten asked if I was ok and followed that with, “Have you talked to God about this yet?” Point taken, Jesus, hint received…So, I had a conversation with Him. It didn’t take long and it was quite simple. It went something like this:

Me: Lord, I know you didn’t cause that dog to bite me, but what do you want me to take away from this having happened?

God: Fear has entered into your life. The snarling dog and his pursuit of you, even across a busy road, represent fear’s pursuit of you.

That gave me a lot to think about and I knew I was given a choice in that moment – continue on in fear or make the choice to not let fear dominate me. I thought about all of the things that I struggle with that cause fear. It’s primarily centered on security and having the finances to meet even our most basic needs. When those needs aren’t met, I become incredibly fearful and the dog is biting at my leg.

I thought about being in that situation with the dog aggressively coming toward me. I relied on what I knew to do in my own strength and power – I didn’t run and I used a very deep, loud voice to declare, “NO!” The problem was that what I did in my own strength and power wasn’t enough. The dog got his bite in and continued to pursue me, causing fear to keep me behind a closed door that I wouldn’t come out from behind until two other men went outside to check for the dog and my husband was on his way to “rescue” me. It never occurred to me in the midst of the situation to cry out to God for help or to use the name of Jesus with power and authority. I automatically fell back on what I knew to do on my own to help myself in a scary situation. I didn’t beat myself up over that, but it did make me think of how often I do that in any variety of situations.

When we find ourselves in need with our backs up against a wall, we pray and cry out to God for help, but we often default to doing all that we can in our own strength to save ourselves, coming up with solutions that may not always be HIS solutions. We react out of fear, making a swift decision and jumping at the most immediate way out when traveling that way can lead us on a much longer path to being saved from the very thing that’s causing us to fear. It reminds me of the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years because they let fear dominate the majority and an entire generation never entered the Promised Land. They missed out on so much, including the miracles that God performed on their behalf when they eventually faced their enemies in the land God had given them. He did so much more on their behalf than they ever could have done for themselves. Just think of the walls of Jericho!

The passage in Matthew 6: 25-34 comes to mind. Jesus ends by saying, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own troubles.”  Even knowing this, how many of us fear and worry about both the big and the small? Much of what we worry about is completely out of our control, which is why we fear it.

When Todd White spoke at our church the morning after I was bitten, he shared a word picture of holding a daisy and pulling off each petal one-by-one, saying of the Father, “He loves me. He loves me. He loves me…” There’s never a “not” attached to that when you’re thinking of how the Father loves each of us. Being sure of that beyond a shadow of a doubt keeps fear at bay, closing the door in its face, and gives us authority over it so that it has no longer has power over us. I KNOW that we have a Father in heaven who adores us and cares for our every need and I KNOW He WILL stand by His word because He is faithful.   Because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is a good, good Father, I don’t need to be afraid. I can trust, even when things look scary.

While the dogs may pursue and nip at us, we can be assured that even in those situations, He IS protecting us and He does a much better job of it than we can do for ourselves. The choice is ours. Are we going to continue on in fear or choose to not let fear dominate us? My decision is made. How about you?