Holding His Gifts Loosely

If dogs could talk, two of them would call our house “home.” One is an older gentleman coming up on 84 years old in dog years. “Cookie” (AKA “Sugar Cookie” or “Cookie Monster” depending on her disposition on any given day) is half the old guy’s age but twice as high-strung.

Neither of our dogs could lodge legitimate complaints about the lives they live here. In fact, from the outside looking in, these dogs have a pretty sweet gig. They sleep when and where they want. Dog food bowls filled with nutritious food magically appear in front of them twice a day. A doggy door provides them access to the great outdoors when nature calls or when they feel compelled to warn the neighbors about the dangerous trash trucks rolling through the neighborhood every Tuesday morning.

I’m not sure what livin’ the dream is for a dog, but I feel confident our dogs have arrived.

Fun fact – both I and my dogs are very treat-motivated. We’ve been able to do some basic training with them (me, not so much) by using small snacks as rewards. Cookie tends to lean toward the anxious side, and we’ve discovered that a larger chew treat often helps her calm down. She’ll take her treat into a room by herself and do one of two things.

Either she’ll slowly work away at the treat and forget what she was wound up about. Or her anxiety will only get worse. Rather than settling in and enjoying her treat, she decides she needs to guard and protect it. She’ll search for a good hiding place, bury it with her nose under layers of blankets, and patrol that area to ensure that Pup #2 doesn’t discover and devour her hidden treasure.

Crazy Cookie has taken what was meant to be a good thing and instead carries the weight and anxiety of making sure no one takes it from her.

Have you ever felt like Cookie? God has given you so many good gifts! You’re blessed and rich in the most important ways. But instead of feeling joy and gratitude, you’re stressed and insecure.

Could it be that you’re holding on a little too tightly? Are you fearful that at any moment, circumstances could change and your world could cave in? Do you lie in bed at night, staring into the darkness, running through all the “what-if’s?”

Now might be a good time to pause, reflect, and do a reset.

Friends, we are entitled to nothing. Every good gift from the Father is meant to be a blessing – not a burden. When we receive His gifts with grateful hearts and His kindnesses as expressions of His goodness and love, we find ourselves in a position that allows us to relax and enjoy Him.

The unraveling of our peace begins when we idolize the gifts and grow possessive and proud. Cookie will literally bite the hand that feeds her if I attempt to take away the chew treat she’s been given – even though she did nothing to earn or deserve it and even if I take it away so that she’ll have enough room in her tummy for her upcoming dinner. In the same vein, our sense of entitlement causes us to lash out at God when our circumstances shift or He removes from our lives something we value – even if it’s in our best interest.

We forget that God operates in all things for our good. We forget that His love and holiness are the driving forces behind His every deed. We forget to take a good, long look in the rearview mirror and remember every past hardship where His faithfulness held.

Open your arms wide, and welcome every good and perfect gift coming down generously from the Father of lights. But hold loosely to each one, and let them be cause to love and trust Him more each day. He is the only One worth grabbing onto with all your might. Everything else is just gravy.

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“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” – Ephesians 2:8

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You.” – Psalm 73:25

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17

“All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.” – 2 Chronicles 15:15

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33