Lola L-O-L-A Lola: Grace, Gratitude & Dogs

It is really difficult to know what to write about this week, not because there isn’t anything going on in the news; we all know what’s happening there. And the readings for Sunday are some of the richest of the entire year. They include this famous passage from the prophet Micah –

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

And one of my personal favorites from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians –

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

And from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ sermon on the Beatitudes –

Blessed are –
the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

So, after giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to write about dogs.

Yes, dogs. Rescue dogs, to be exact. This Wednesday we will be adopting our second rescue dog. She’s an eight month old Border Collie/Blue Heeler mix (soon to be) named Lola.

If you know anything about rescue dogs, then you know they have one trait in common: they are affectionate. It may take a little time, especially if they have been abused, but once you have their trust you will never find a more loving or loyal companion. It almost seems as if they are grateful: grateful to have a home, grateful to have humans who love them.

The more I think about it, gratitude is really the proper attitude for people of faith. We should be grateful to God before everything else. And why wouldn’t we be grateful? God has given us everything: life and breath and salvation and…dogs, every good thing.
Paul put things in context in his first letter to the believers in Corinth:

[God] is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

If we cultivate gratitude, if we shift our focus from our own efforts and recognize that blessings come as gifts from the grace of God, then that should lead us to be humble, kind, justice-loving people in response.

The operative word, I suppose, is should. But, grounding my life in gratitude to God is something I personally struggle with. I struggle because often it is easier to see the bad in life rather than the good. For example, I tend to dwell on all the things I cannot do, all the gifts that I do not have, rather than the gifts I do have. But, when I do stop to count my blessings, especially my family and friends, I realize that God has blessed me abundantly.

And God has blessed this world abundantly. Look at creation. God has given us a world full of good things. Do we appreciate it? Do we treat our home (earth) with gratitude and humility, or do we take it for granted?

While I would not describe myself as a tree-hugger, I am a conservationist. And one thing we desperately need to conserve and protect is our water supply. But, this last week the government rolled back clean water protections, allowing raw sewage to once again be dumped into our rivers. Are we honoring God when we do this? Are we honoring this wonderful gift of clean water, a gift many people in other countries don’t have? Or are we taking God’s gift for granted – treating it with arrogance instead of gratitude and humility?

My sense of gratitude is leading me to take a more active role in advocating for the natural world. Where might gratitude lead you? Perhaps to working for justice, or feeding the hungry, or being kind to other people, or adopting a dog.

Speaking of dogs, I suppose there are those who would look down on a lowly mixed-breed rescue dog. But, remember what St. Paul wrote –

God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

If I can learn gratitude from a dog, just imagine what we could learn from one another!