Last night my men’s group took some time to get quiet and just listen for God to speak to them. After reading through Ephesians Chapters 1 & 2, I asked each of our 13 guys to leave the room and go outside to find a place where they could ask God some leading questions:

Why am I going on this walk?

What am I doing?

What do you want to say to me?

What do you want to show me?

How do you see me?

Where am I going?

What should I do next?

Each of these guys did their own thing and they had about 20 minutes to do that thing. Some guys took a walk. Some guys went out to their cars and just sat. Some guys headed for the woods. A saw one guy climb a tree and sit in it. I went off on my own walk and began to ask God those very questions.

Within minutes He spoke to me and I feel like what He said might be something for you as well:

Stop being a pro.

Get to the place where you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Stop being safe.

Display dangerous love for people.

Quit taking yourself so seriously.

Get back to the story.

Take some time to ask those same questions and remember that this isn’t drive-thru Jesus. We can’t command God to speak to us within 30 seconds and have it “our way” – sometimes it takes longer, and sometimes we don’t get anything at all. But I’ve got a feeling that if we get quiet and ask some honest questions – you’ll get some answers. I’d love to hear what He is saying to you.

I picked Harlan up from the vet last night and brought him back to his sanctuary. We had to prepare a place for him so that he could be isolated while he’s trying to recover. They said our other dog (Saul) should be kept separate from him as much as possible so that he doesn’t try to get Harlan rowdy or mess with his stitches.

Something I wasn’t expecting was that our Jack Russel Terrier Saul would be on his best behavior ever. Normally, if the dogs are ever separated, the one who stayed home will attack the dog who left and mess with him for a couple of hours. Once we arrived home and I carried Harlan inside, Saul knew that he needed to take care of his buddy. He immediately came up to lay right next to Harlan. No sniffing…no jumping…just popped a squat right away. He’s been leading Harlan around the house very slowly to the food and water or to find new spots to lay down in. What a great buddy dog.

I’m trying to get Harlan up and moving to see if he can regain the use the leg. Here’s a video of him:

We’ve got some time before his leg would need to be amputated if it comes to that. For now, I’ll keep giving him his several medications and we’ll see what progress he makes. He’s already doing quite a bit better.

This entry originally posted on 8/28/2008. I’m re-posting this because last night around 6:30pm, my dog Harlan was hit by a large truck. He’s about 8 years old, but some boys never lose the desire to chase. He has extensive nerve damage to his right front leg, blood in his eyes, and a lot of bruising. We will be allowed to bring him home from the vet later tonight. He’ll need to be isolated to see how he can recover for about a week. If he’s able to get some of the nerves to regrow in his leg, then he will be able to keep his leg…if not, it will have to be amputated soon. Otherwise he won’t be able to adjust and he’d be dragging his leg around, which can lead to infections and all sorts of issues. He’s not a smart dog, but he’s a good one. We are trusting for 4 legs, but we’ll love him with 3 even more if it comes to that.

Harlan and Saul have been looking a little down lately. My typical love language for them is either a nice punch in the ribs or a smack in the face to get them all rowdy. I keep forgetting that they’re sensitive and just like my wife, they want me to be spontaneous and take them to interesting places. I’ve never taken these dweebs to the dog park before, so I decided yesterday was the day.

I loaded the pooches up into the back of the 4runner, and we set off for an adventure. Surely they thought they were headed towards euthanasia as I don’t take them anywhere really. They’ve got a nice doggie-door with access to come and go as they please, as well as a big enough yard to frolic around like mentally-ill Gazelles. Their life is good…really good. You can’t ever have too much culture though, and these dudes lack culture. Culture…here we come.

Everything started out nice. There weren’t many dogs there at all, maybe six or seven others.

Other dogs would come up to check us out and see if they wanted us to join their respective clubs.

Saul was basking in the glory of it all. He kept looking at me with the grin as if to say, “I love you Master…I love you so much.”

He was checking everyone out asking them if they wanted to be his BFF.

Saul wrestled with many a dog larger than he and held his own like a champion.

Harlan was a little different story however.

Although he’s got nearly 40lbs on Saul…it’s all wuss. Harlan is approximately 50lbs of marshmallow fluff mixed with Richard Simmons exercise DVDs and Polly Pocket accessories. This dog is a sissy.

Ridgeback mix my foot…Harlan spent the majority of his time at the dog park hiding from his shadow on top of picnic tables. I kept checking under him to see if he did indeed have a weiner and although it was there…the evidence wasn’t shown anywhere else.

Now I will admit that Nala, a dominatrix of a mutt, was a bit on the controlling side.

But this is just embarrassing.

Of the few times that Harlan wasn’t on top of a table, he spent it trying to figure out how to escape the dog park all together. What a ninny.

Other dogs kept coming up to me whispering…”Is he okay?”

Note to self as a photographer…next time try not to use Saul’s southbound side as a focal point.

All in all, it was an hour well spent. I think I’ll have to bring them back soon. We’ll get Harlan over his fears and Saul can reign supreme once more.