The "Spirit Whisperer"

One night a couple of years ago, while flipping through the TV channels, I came across a reality show called "The Dog Whisperer". I really wasn't all that interested, and I didn't own a dog and even though we have a thousand channels, there wasn't a thing on, so I decided to watch it. To my surprise it turned out to be quite an interesting show. The show featured dog owners who needed help getting their dog's behavior under control. The supposed "guru" of dogs, Cesar Millan, was supposed to be the answer to anything and everything dog related. I watched in fascination as an owner of a Basset Hound dragged her fifty pound dog up her driveway and into her house by the leash because he refused to come in. Now, when I say dragged, I mean the dog was actually laying down in the driveway, and refusing to move, and she was literally pulling him along the ground with all her might. Now I am not really a dog lover, so you would think that this would not be a show that would appeal to me, but I found myself watching as Cesar came for a consult and practically performed magic on this dog. His behavior was transformed within a few minutes, from resisting and non compliance, to doing exactly what his owner wanted him to do.
I found myself watching all of the episodes that came on in utter fascination. Sometimes it would be a dog that was obsessed with rocks, or light, or balls. Sometimes, it would be a dog that was obsessed with water. Some dogs were so aggressive, that they were going to be put down if Cesar couldn't help. Even the tiny dogs, like little Yorkies, had problems with terrible aggression. Cesar even said  that the dog with the worst aggression problem he had seen was a tiny little chihuahua named Bandit. These dogs all had problems, some small, some big, but the answer was always the same. Every time, he would come in  and say to the owners. "Are you walking the dog? Are you walking the dog? Are you walking the dog?" Over and over, and the answer was almost always the same. "Well, we don't have time, Well, we thought having a big yard was enough, well, we can't control him, so we keep him at home." Cesar would tell them that they must practice exercise, discipline, and then affection, in that order, in order for the dog to have a balanced life. That never taking the dog for a walk was like keeping him in a bubble all the time, which causes boredom, which leads to discipline problems. He would tell them that it was very important and necessary to walk the dog, so that excess energy could be drained, and that when the dog was tired he would be more easily trainable. After the walk over was when they would begin to address the dog's discipline problems, when the dog was more open to listening, teaching, and training.
I watched the show regularly for about six months and gleaned some interesting things, not just about dogs, but about life.
One Sunday morning I decided that the time had come for me to find a church in my new town. I had moved there about a year before and had put off looking, because I just can't stand "church shopping" as I call it. The church I was going to was actually NOT in my town, but was an hour away. I got there and attended the service, and was not really very comfortable. Something about the place just didn't feel right. BUT the Lord spoke to me there in the strangest way. We were reading in Galatians. I can't remember what they were reading, but my eye skipped down the page to Galatians 5:16. "But I say, walk and live in the Spirit, then you will not gratify the desires and cravings of the flesh." When I read that, all of a sudden in my head, I could hear Cesar, saying over and over "It's all about the walk. It's all about the walk." Immediately, my mind made the connection between walking with dogs, and walking with the Lord. Only of course with the Lord as the Master. Not to say that we are dogs, but think about it. When we allow the Lord to "walk" us, we stay right next to him. We don't run off and do whatever we want. We don't look off to the left or right, but keep our eyes ahead. We don't get distracted by other things along the way, and if we do, then he corrects us. In other words, the walk is where it's at. He takes us where HE wants to go, and along the way, through exercise, discipline, and love, (not necessarily in that order) we learn to trust Him. WOW! All of this came to me in a millisecond, sitting there in that church.
The next week I decided to go to a church down the road from my house. I didn't hold out much hope that it would be "the one" because after all, I reasoned, what are the chances of a really good church in my little tiny town of 9,900. That very reasoning was the reason I hadn't gone there before. I knew about this church, I thought about going there, but I talked myself out of it every time.
Well, the Lord set me back on my heels the very first time I went in there and I was ashamed of myself for selling the Lord so short. The place was rocking. The choir was rocking. I mean, they were really rocking. They were all moving in unison to the music from side to side, with their hands raised in praise. It was different and refreshing. I loved it. To my shock, the pastor opened his sermon with Galatians 5:17! The same chapter I had read the previous week, very next verse! "For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the Holy Spirit, and the desires of the Holy Spirit are opposed to the flesh; For these are antagonistic to each other, so that you are not free, but are prevented from doing what you desire to do." The pastor began to describe the "walk' in the Spirit, as being a tug of war, between the flesh and Spirit. I could totally see myself, in my mind, on a leash, (in a dog perspective) tugging away from the Lord, with my fleshly desires, and He, working with me to get me to submit and walk by his side in a calm and peaceful way.
In a funny way, this knowledge also bled over into my home life. I have three children, and as the world's weeniest mother when it comes to discipline, they are all out of control. I didn't want to be a meanie, and so that's how I became the "weenie". I began to see that love had nothing to do with it. The love is there, but love without discipline is not complete. They aren't balanced. And if I'm not disciplining them as I should, then neither am I, and we are all thrown off-kilter. I love how the Lord can use something as simple and unorthodox as a TV show about dogs to teach me more about myself, But I guess if He can make a donkey talk...anything is possible.

In the end, some of these dogs, were even able to graduate to walking without a leash. At that point, it wasn't about training anymore, it was about companionship.
It became about just enjoying time together. There was total trust that the dog wouldn't run away, and just as much trust that the master knew where they were going.
Truly, if we could get to that point in our relationship with God, wouldn't that be the ultimate definition of "Walking in the Spirit"?