Being “up for whatever”

Dogs have a great way of looking at the world. And they live in the moment. We can learn from them, and experience from them some great qualities. 

Transcript

I wanna be a dog. 

Well, not really, but dogs have some great qualities. Dogs demonstrate unconditional love, loyalty, joy, readiness to play, eagerness to please, and living in the moment. Of course, dogs are also always hungry, slobbery, bark at strangers and depending on the breed, might bite you. I don’t want to be like that, but I like the first list. They are positive values that go with working to be in the moment. People have compared dogs to God’s relationship to us, especially the unconditional love, the constant companionship, loyalty, and joy. I’m sorry if that is not your experience of God or experience of dogs. 

Scientists say humans and dogs have co-existed for centuries together and we have each adapted to the other. Wolves, I understand, have close family support systems, but when they see humans, they have little reaction. Dogs, distant relatives to wolves, respond to humans because their ancestors learned to interact and benefit from humans. And we humans have benefitted from dogs. You’ve seen the images from the Egyptians, dogs have been companions and even worshipped back into centuries and civilizations past. 

The thing that stands out to me is that dogs are usually “up for whatever.” They are curious, observant and react to what they are seeing and smelling in the moment. My wife and I were at a park the other day and met a woman and her puppy, a milk chocolate colored Weimaraner. I think his name was George. George looked at us, sniffed the ground, looked around at kids on the playground, looked at its owner, and seemed content in “discovery mode,” like “what can we discover here?”

Our dog Callie was like that. She was happiest when first arriving at a park or heading out for a walk because there were new things to sniff, things to see, more things to sniff. She could let out some of her pent-up energy by running in sprints. That was usually followed by stops to smell, then sprinting again. A veterinarian once told me, “Dogs are not deep thinkers.” I took that to mean that dogs are in the moment, dealing with whatever comes; they are not analyzing to ponder what they should do. 

Humans can lose interest in the newness of life. We tell ourselves, “There is no new thing under the sun,” and get bored with the ordinary. That’s a shame because the ordinary is rich with details we can notice and be thankful for with a little curiosity. 

We can be very judgmental of anyone different than us, or anything done differently than the way we would do it. Be honest, do you first lean toward criticism of other people, or things done in ways other than how you would do them? If you are not that way, good for you. For the rest of us who tend to be judging all the time, curiosity (and humility) can be the cure to that. If you get curious instead of judging, you might learn a new perspective, and new way of doing things. Maybe you won’t give up your way, but you just might experience new tastes in food, fix a problem from a different angle, or experience the richness of humanity instead of closing yourself off. 

Matthew 7:2-5 says: ,,,in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

What challenges you in this verse? What comforts you? 

Try this with me: If you can safely do so, get still and close your eyes. Relax your body from head to toes as much as possible. If you have pain in some part of your body, attend to the areas around that pain and relax there; it may lessen the pain a bit. 

Now let your mind drift to a person or group very different than you. Whatever or whoever comes to mind first is fine. It can be difference because of color, age, race, religion, neighborhood, work roles, gender, anything. If that makes you feel defensive, I’m not asking you to move in with them, just consider them for a moment. What do they do that frustrates or puzzles you? Wonder about that. If you take an objective stance, as a neutral observer, what do you notice? Even people who act in ways that baffle us have reasons they do what they do. What if you took the dog position of curiosity? What might you learn?

Being “up for whatever” like a dog can be a great way to experience life. It is not the same as agreeing with or endorsing other’s ways of living, it’s just taking a humble curious stance from which to learn.