As we sit around our camp fire, eating our soup at the top of this mountain overlooking a small city. As we sleep in our hammocks, drink our coffee, and ask about life together, we notice something that is a little odd. There was this scrawny small dog that has wandered up to our campsite and kept creeping up underneath our chairs. This dog was so annoying!
We kept trying to chase her away, and for about 5 minutes at a time it worked. But then this skinny, stupid dog would come back and we would shoo it away again. Every once in a while we would accidently drop food and this dog would be right there to eat it right up. As we go to bed that night, we settle in our hammocks and wait for the morning, expecting this annoying, starving dog to be gone.
When we woke up, to our surprise the dog was still there, already waiting for us to drop a few crumbs from breakfast. We would continue to chase her off and she would continue to come back. This happened so much that we all began to get really tired of shooing her away and began to just ignore her. This way we wouldn’t get all worked up when she was around and waste our energy on chasing a dog. By about the 3rd day, not only were we tolerating this dog, but also we began to feed it and we even gave her a name. We named her Paco. Now every time that we see Paco, we yell “PACO!!!” and if we have any extra food we give it to her.
Now I realize that feeding a stray dog isn’t the best thing we could have done but we could actually learn a few things from this dog.
The 1st thing is that I was actually really impressed at Paco’s persistence, consistency, and determination. Paco would not give up. She refused to leave us alone. No matter how many times we shooed her away and chased her off, she kept coming back. I hope that my walk with the Lord is like Paco’s determination, consistency, and persistence. That no matter how many times I feel like its difficult, too much or whatever, that I would continue to press in even when it gets hard. That even if I feel like the people around me are trying to chase me away for their sake that I would continue to step into the uncomfortable.
A 2nd thing to learn from this is that I hope I am never the type of person that shoos someone away just because they may bother me. Doing that isn’t helpful, it’s detrimental. I hope that I am and becoming the type of person that welcomes all regardless of their situation.
Because of Paco’s consistency, not only did she get food, not only were we eventually excited to see her, but she was also given a name. And now Paco is part of the family.
