A Fruitless Search

There are times in this life that I don't understand everything I know. This morning was one of those times.

After our Boston puppy, Buddy, goes out with Phil he comes flying to the office to find me and give me my "Good morning!" puppy love. This morning when he came in I was not in the office so Buddy decides to go looking for the cat until I appear in my designated morning spot.

I heard Buddy go into the living room so I hurried to the door of the living room to try to stop the chase and fight that I just KNEW was coming. What I witnessed was my laugh for today (Buddy is usually good at least once a day for a good laugh). If you will look carefully at the picture on the left, you will see on the bottom shelf on the right-hand side of the picture a big black blob. That is where the cat was when Buddy entered the living room this morning.

Now notice the picture on the right. That is a picture of my living room from the cat's perspective. Buddy entered the living room from a door that is just to the left of where I took the picture, parallel to the shelf where the cat is lying. Now remember, Buddy is in search of the cat. He crosses right in front of the cat, looks behind the sofa comes around and checks behind the chair and then circles the coffee table and then leaves the living room after deciding the cat is definitely NOT in the living room. This whole trip was made while doing a Labrador retriever imitation with his nose to the ground trying to "smell out" the cat like Squirt does.

I know Boston Terriers are not known for their keen sense of smell, but one would think that he would have at keast smelled the cat when he walked right past him to get behind the couch! He did manage to find me in the hallway after his fruitless search. How could he miss. I was standing there laughing hysterically with tears running out of my eyes.

Imagine the look on the cat's face as this stupid dog is running around his territory searching diligently for him and the dog is clueless. You know the cat had to have some serious doubts about Buddy's I.Q. Come to think about it, he probably was having a pretty good cat laugh as he watched this imitation hunting dog trying to smell out his "prey".

As I watched that very excited puppy run around the living room while Shadow watched calmly from his front row seat, I thought about how we search the scriptures for encouragement or comfort or just information on how to handle a situation. In today's microwave society, we think we should be able to use what I call the "flop method" (where you just let the Bible flop open and you close your eyes and point to a verse) and be able to get our answer. That method will be empty most of the time and dangerous sometimes.

I heard the story of a person who had a problem and decided to use the flop method to get his answer because he had heard that God will give answers that way and he didn't have time to really search the Bible. So he let the Bible flop, closed his eyes and pointed to a scripture. When he opened his eyes the scripture read, "And Judas hanged himself from a tree." Well, he knew that wasn't the answer he was seeking so he decided to try again. He let the Bible flop, closed his eyes and pointed to yet another verse. What he read totally unnerved him. The verse said, "Go and do likewise."

II Timothy 2:14-15 says, "Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth." Later in the third chapter we are told, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

The Scripture to tells us to be diligent (that means lots of work!) in our search of the Scriptures so that we may be adequately equipped to what? Work. Just like our mothers used to tell us, "Anything worth having is worth working for."

Want to hear from God regarding some situation in your life? Then it will be necessary to diligently search the Word for the answer. God never "microwaves" His answers and only rarely does the "flop method" prove fruitful.

Reading from God's Word daily helps to speed up the process of finding answers. What? You don't have time to do it every day? I don't either and I skip days because I think I already have too much to do that day, just like everyone else. But if I want the answers I seek from God, I have to make time. Sometimes I find answers and sometimes God shows me the darker side of me. Either way, the time I spend with God is always worth the work.

Just like Buddy was pretending to be Squirt and failing miserably, much to Shadow's amusement, I need to stop pretending to be a Bible scholar and work at learning everything God has for me in His Word.

Trust me, I never was a very good Labrador retriever anyway.