Be Not Dismayed

 

As I walked the neighborhood today I laughed out loud as I chanced upon this scene. This poor skeleton was out for an early morning walk himself, only to become the target of a skeleton dog whose owner does not obey the community leash law. I suppose a dog is a dog, and a bone is a bone, and that dogs miss out on the idea of irony.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the skeleton felt like we can at times, wondering “why bad things happen to me” when all he was doing was minding his own skeleton business. Perhaps he even knew the skeleton dog, and was always kind and friendly to it as he rattled around the neighborhood each day on his walk. And now this! Or, worse yet, maybe it is his own skeleton dog! Wasn’t it King Lear who said, “How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!” ? I suppose he would know.

Life, especially life in these crazy days, can unfold in ways that make us feel that, no matter how hard we try, the skeleton dog is eyeing our bones. My father used to put it this way, “that poor guy can’t win for losing”. It is easy to become discouraged and negative. But when we let that happen, the skeleton dog wins. But more importantly, we lose. And to glimpse the full picture, those whose lives we touch lose as well, for a light has gone out in a world that desperately needs it.

Life can be hard. But to become negative is to become blind to the fact that life can also be beautiful beyond words. The Prophet of old wrote these words: “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

The power of a healthy faith is not that it denies the reality of life but that it

acknowledges it. There will be days of discouragement and dismay, but that is not all there will be. There will be God, every day. Even on those days when we can’t shake that skeleton dog.

Peace.