That Time Those Dogs Ganged up on My Beagle

So, this past Monday, March 12, 2018, National Napping Day was celebrated in the United States.

This was the day after most of us reluctantly moved our clocks forward one hour.

I hadn’t heard of this national day, but since I was feeling particularly sleep-deprived that morning, I decided to join the celebration.

And I did that by doing what any serious tweeter would do: I tweeted about it.

I honored the best napper I know, our beagle, Little Joe Jack Carson. But we just call him “Joe.”

Funny thing about this particular tweet.

It hands-down got more activity than any of my other tweets.

To date, I have 500 tweets, most of which pertain to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can enjoy greater intimacy with Him through understanding our one-and-only flawless identity in Him.

Now, I’m sure that Jesus isn’t offended, so I shouldn’t be offended for Him, right?

Because without Jesus creating this world, Joe wouldn’t have even been a glimmer in his parents’ eye.

And besides that, you have to admit that Joe is the most handsome beagle of all time and eternity! (Thank you, big brother Bobby, for giving him to us!)

As you can tell, I love our dog.

And it’s amazing how much I’ve learned just watching him.

For instance, if there is only one tiny spot in our big backyard with the sun shining on it, that’s where you will find Joe, basking in all his beagle glory. (Smile.)

Whether he is just sitting there being his regal self, catching rays or sprawled out in a full-fledged nap without a care in the world, Joe knows how to savor life.

Even though Jesus has been showing me how to consistently enjoy Him and life in general, I sometimes envy a dog’s world.

You know—how easy it is for a dog to relax, take several naps a day, and dream whatever it is dogs dream about.

No, I wouldn’t rather be a dog.

But, at times, I have a tendency to be super-serious about life, so I have to be intentional about relaxing and taking a nap when I need one.

Since Joe spends most days just mindin’ his own beagle business—without a care in the world—you can imagine how my ears perked up this past Saturday morning when I heard him going ballistic right outside my library window.

I was just sitting there quietly, reading Day 3 from Week 6 of the Bible study I wrote on the first two chapters of the Song of Songs, His Banner Over Me Is Pursuing Love, when all the commotion started.

The subject of that day’s study is taking enemy thoughts captive that pop up in our minds.

Jarred from my peaceful contemplation, I bolted out of my chair, looked out the window, and saw the three little culprits that were rocking Joe’s world.

One was mostly white, another mostly black, and the third, a black-and-white mix.

You would have thought they were planning to eat Joe alive by the way they sounded.

So, I started banging on the window. Their combined canine courage quickly dissolved and they took off like a bat out of … well, you know.

One of them—the black one—mustered up enough gumption to stop and look back.

So, I banged on the window again and told him to vamoose! It didn’t take him long to catch up with his partners in crime.

And they haven’t been back to our house since.

I did, however, catch a glimpse of this trouble-making trio roaming around the neighborhood the other day as I was driving home from the grocery store.

No doubt trying to rock another canine, feline, or squirrel’s peaceful world with their all-bark-and-no-bite dogsanas.

Right after that brief interruption in our otherwise uneventful morning, Joe got settled into his backyard utopia and I dug back into my study.

That’s when God started talking to me about what just happened.

It was no coincidence that I was just reading about how the enemy works in our thought lives, stealing our peace, joy, and contentment.

One of the main reasons I wrote this book was to expose Satan’s clandestine schemes.

The fifth bullet point on my back cover (this was my first cover) reads:

• You have a real, invisible enemy who is trying everything within his limited power to hoodwink you into accepting his lies about who you are. Once you learn his most effective strategy, you will be armed and dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.

There is a daily battle going on in the mind of every believer in Christ. And it’s called a  battle because there are opposing forces in there.

Some of you may be shouting a loud Amen right now to this statement.

The apostle Paul wrote about these skirmishes in his second letter to the church at Corinth:

“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity (2 Cor. 10:3-5 MSG).”