Pursuit

I learned a lesson from my dog, Diego, yesterday.

For the past 4 weeks, this huge, 7-pound squirrel has been camping out in our maple tree in our back yard. Diego, a 20-pound Jack Russell terrier, has been absolutely consumed with this squirrel. He has spent most of his days sitting by the door, waiting for the opportunity to terrorize this squirrel. Most of the time, he sprints out the door, only to find the squirrel frantically scurrying up the tree, clinging to any substantial piece of bark that will sustain his rather husky body.

Yesterday, after this 4 week, all-consuming hunting campaign, Diego reached his goal. He killed the squirrel. And this taught me a lesson.

What most would have considered impossible, Diego accomplished. The squirrel was much more nimble than Diego. The squirrel spent more time in the back yard than Diego did; it was the squirrel’s terrain. Diego had every reason to give up. He had zero success in his 4 weeks of scouting this animal out. He had no reason to think he could ever catch this menace. I bet our other dog, Miley, talked smack to him every day about how awful he was as a squirrel hunter.

But, Diego never gave up.

How often do I give up my pursuits? How many times do I resist being singularly focused on a goal? How often do I let failure define me? How often do I simply give up because I have no hope for success? How often do I listen to the critics that say something can’t be done? How much more could God do with me if I simply committed my all to him in everything and kept striving, even in the midst of failure?

I think he could do a lot with that kind of focus. In fact, he sent us some instructions to back this idea up:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24).

Are you focused on giving your best in all things? If so, you just might be able to kill a squirrel (or maybe something a little more significant).