Bark and Cry!

I was out walking Stella Bella one day when a larger dog approached us. The dog came out from seemingly nowhere. I wasn’t certain if I should pick Stella up or allow her to stand her ground alongside me. She was on her leash and immediately I could see the fear in her eyes. The dog sniffed around her - as dogs do. As I looked more closely, I noticed the gray around his eyes and could tell that he was more senior to our puppy. Not long thereafter, the dog walked away. As we continued on our walk, and the dog remained away from us, but in our rear line of site, Stella began to bark and then cry with a whimper. She repeated this see saw behavior until we reached our home. I told her, “It’s okay Sella, sometimes we have to bark and cry at the same time.” Here I thought I was helping her, but in actuality, that simply revelation spoke to me in such a powerfully compelling manner. I was happy to be on our front porch and no longer walking in the neighborhood, because that simple statement catapulted me into worship. Here’s why.

While we attempt to remain in a posture of “watching and waiting,” we unlike God can be taken by surprise. I walk Stella on the route we assumed two to three times per day. We’d never seen the dog that approached us. We pass by the house where the dog emerged from each time we walk. Perhaps in your daily deportment, you find yourself going about your tasks, emitting similar behavior, when you are completely caught off guard. It’s in those moments that we are struck frozen, immobile, uncertain as to what to do next. The Word tells us in Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." We did that and we were still a bit afraid. I say we because while I was aware of Stella’s uncertainty about the situation, she didn’t know that I was bitten by a dog as a child and that memory rushed into my body. I wish I could say that was the only time I’ve been afraid or that it only happened as a child, but that just wouldn’t be true. The Word tells us that we are not to have a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7), but I’m fearful about many things - as I’m sure you are as well. However, I’m affirmed in knowing that God knows me - and you - and nevertheless allows us to be placed in situations that may emit our cry unto Him while also being fully empowered in our bark and cry to God so that He engages on our behalf. Psalm 34:17 declares, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 50:15 affirms, “And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” The cries that began in Biblical times manifest through us today. They may present for different situations and contexts, but our God remains the same. And because our God changeth not, we have confidence in His ability, His nature, His stature, His tendency to rescue us from all that drives our cries. What does our bark look like? It looks like pronouncing healing over your body amidst a less than favorable diagnosis. It is keeping a work schedule for rising and resting when you are navigating a layoff. It is going in the baby section of the store when. you are undergoing IVF. It is saving for the house even as you sign another rental agreement. It is having and holding onto the hope that God promised, even when the evidence has not yet become tangible. We can give God our vulnerabilities, our complexities, our hardships, our challenges and our concerns in the places and situations that are familiar and those that emerge out of nowhere. God is not afraid to take on what we present. As we live in the juxtaposition, it’s easy to narrow in on the reasons to cry, but it is even more powerful to hone in on the reasons to bark - that assurance to the neighborhood dog or the enemy of our soul that in the words of the song, Go ahead and cry out to God! Let God be God in the places that cause you to doubt, to question, to wonder, to hesitate. And concurrently, bark out a little of this song, “I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.”