One of the nastiest things of being a dog owner is the unexpected sickness. When a dog pukes, lookout! Cocoa has thrown up a handful of times in his short little life but every time I am reminded why Ashly and I never had a pet in our first 15 years of marriage, and if it weren’t for my kids, I still wouldn’t have one.
First, you can hear it…something guttural, deep within, like an old gas boiler type furnace trying to kick on. Then you see the repeated convulsion like an aggressive cat-cow stretch that gets stuck halfway and only keeps doing the cat portion. Finally, you experience the full show where the inside comes out and the dog is left looking at you, licking his lips, as if to say, “Don’t worry dad, I’m fine, now that I got that out of there! Thanks for checking. Oh, and might want to clean that up…”
And, I’m left trying to get the putrid chunks, vile stain, and rancid smell out of the carpet. I LOVE having a dog…
This is natural and we can’t really fault the dog for this. It’s the same for us when we have a bug in our gut and need to get it out. This is the body’s way of purging what’s is NOT supposed to be in there. It’s actually a really good thing, although NO ONE in the history of the world likes throwing up! But, I think we’ll agree that once it’s over, we tend to feel better.
This is as natural to our spiritual life as puking is to our physical body. Sometimes things get in there unintentionally, like food poisoning, and we weren’t aware to begin with but once we discover its presence, the purging must commence.
Other times, it’s things we’ve done to ourselves, like too much junk food, greasy fast food (before working out), or a lot of alcohol, but the reality is the need still exists to clean things out!
So, is there anything inside you need to purge? What is God speaking to y ou about right now that is making your soul sick and God wants you to get rid of it?
As much as I HATE throwing up, and image you do too, this is only half the problem I’m addressing. The other part is what I’ve seen in Cocoa (and other dogs), and it even in scripture. There is tendency to go to the sport where lunch was acquiesced or as the writer in Proverbs puts it, “RETURN TO THE VOMIT!”
Cocoa, like other dogs, will lick up the freshly regurgitated groceries (and cue gag – you’re welcome). While I appreciate the frugality, I’m sick at the thought, and this is certainly not the point the writer was making on this very issue.
The truth of the text and what I want to bring before you today is the tendency we have to fall back in to our self-sabotaging ways of living. Throughout history there has been quite a lot spoken about the ongoing struggle to (quote the 90s wisdom writers, Third Eye Blind) “put the past away” from pop culture to scripture.
Jesus instructs a man who he had healed from some serious and extremely long-term disease to make lasting changes to his spiritual life. (John 5:1-15).
He also told a woman who had been caught in a shameful act to choose a different path after he had brought restoration to her (John 8:3-11).
Paul speaks of it this way in regard to maturing in one’s faith:
1 Cor 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
In terms of dogs we might say it this way, “When I was a dog, I acted like a dog. But when I became human, I put doggish ways behind me!”
Throughout scripture the gospel message is new life found in Christ entering a process of leaving the past behind…forever!
Is there something that you have purged from your life that you keep finding yourself coming back to? Do you find it difficult to stay away and leave that thing behind, buried, and forgotten?
Next time you end up standing over the same sickness that broke you in the past, use the phrase, “Dog Vomit,” and remember that have a choice with what you’ve left buried in the past. You also you have a choice in how you respond to whatever is making your stomach churn and head spin in your life presently. And the answer is the same in each case: it’s better to just leave it alone!
Stay well…but if you get sick, purge it, and move past it!
#TheBeastWithin
#DogVomit
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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