This Week’s Thought

Posted on by Horizon Professional Services
Dog

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

I’ve introduced you to Granddog previously.  He recently spent several days with us while his parents were on a well-deserved vacation trip.  He is no trouble.  He lets us know when he needs to go outside.  He knows what time is supper time, and he responds quite energetically to the question, “Are you hungry?”  He also knows when it’s bedtime and eagerly trots off to find his comfy spot for the night.

I suppose it’s the “lab” in him that makes him so very curious.  When he and I head outdoors for his bathroom trips, I may have him on a long leash, but his attention is fixed anywhere but on me.  He puts new meaning to the exclamation “squirrel!” and will about jerk by arm out of socket taking off after one.  He sniffs every flower or weed.  He watches the birds, and he is amazed by those larger-than-life-to-him cows and horses.  His eyes are on everything, it seems, except the mission at hand.

But, when he and I are back inside the house, the distractions are all but gone, and his every attention is focused on me, what I’m doing, and where I’m going.  You see his gaze fixed on me here as I sat in the chair near him.

A simple little verse in Proverbs (4:25) says this, “Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.”  Granddog certainly has this down pat.  But what does the verse mean for us?  Simply put, if my eyes are looking directly ahead and fixed on the Father, then the ever-abundant distractions of life will fade away.  When I focus my gaze on Him, watch what He is doing, and where He is going, then I have no excuse but to see and do what I should.

In the busy-ness of life, may our eyes be as fixed upon the Lord as Granddog’s have been on me!

Just a thought.

This Week’s Thought

Posted on by Horizon Professional Services

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

A couple of weeks ago, I glanced out the back window as I walked through the den, and I saw something unusual in the pond.  I watched for a few seconds and decided it was a beaver.  I knew if this was the case, then we would soon have serious issues.  So, about the time I thought of calling my next door neighbor (He actually owns the pond.) to tell him we needed to tackle that situation, I realized it wasn’t a beaver after all.

A very playful and energetic otter had somehow made its way from the nearby river up a creek or two and was now having a ball playing and splashing around.  Otters have been spotted in other areas of the state, but to my knowledge not around here.  At least I couldn’t find any written proof of such.  And this led me to believe, because the lone otter seemed to be the only one of its species anywhere around, that he shouldn’t “otter” be here!

The holidays, as much as they are grand and wonderful for so many people, are equally difficult and a struggle for others.  Christmas, the beginning of a New Year, and the festivities or family and church events surrounding each can be quite overwhelming.  We are forced to look back at the past year, which quite honestly for some of us has been a year we pray never to repeat.  And we can’t help but wonder are we the lone creature making our way up river in unknown waters to fend for ourselves?

Maybe we look back and think that it just shouldn’t “otter” be this way.  And we’re right.  It shouldn’t.  But because we live in a sinful, fallen world, there will always be the difficulties of life until the Lord chooses to take us out of here.

That little otter hasn’t been seen again since the one morning I snapped some photos and got a quick video.  It must have continued its trek elsewhere.  —  We will too.

Tomorrow, or maybe the next day or the one after that, we will realize that it really doesn’t have to be this way.  Life is what we make of it, by the grace of God.  This is the day that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Every day — every day — is a blessing.  No, maybe it shouldn’t “otter” be this way.  But because we as Christians have the blessed hope for tomorrow, it won’t always!

Blessings on you and yours throughout these glorious holidays and into the New Year.

Just a thought.