Tiny Truth's Thursday...A good thing...

Back in January we got a new dog. He was a rescue and was about 3 years old. He was a full blooded brindle boxer and was just the sweetest dog ever. He fit right in with our family....he loved to play fetch in the yard....he slept in my oldest son's room...he let my youngest son roll all over him....and he even sang when we played the harmonica. He was house trained...just a good 'ol dog. Hogan. Hogan was his name...not my favorite(he had been named previously) but I soon began to love his name. He was such a funny dog...very protective and very playful. He would go get a toy and just bring it over and lay it in your lap. He only had one issue...he liked to run. My neighbor likened him to the dog in the Chevy Chase movie "Funny Farm"....you know, the one that you see running throughout the whole movie but is never actually at their house. Hogan ran away the first time and I was devastated...to the point of my stomach hurting. The next day a lady up the road knocked on our door and said "we have your dog". We were all so elated to have Hogan back home.

We went skiing shortly after we got Hogan back and had to board him. We came home from picking him up at the kennel and I kid you not....he ran away. We were in the back yard throwing the ball and he started walking toward the back hill of our property. I hollered..."no Hogan...come on back"...he looked over his shoulder at me one last time...and gone. I was mad at this point because I had just paid $75 to board this dog and he is gonna run away. What ever!!! We looked for Hogan for weeks...nothing. We got use to him being gone...he was brought up less and less in conversation. We had a "new" normal. Life without Hogan.

Fast forward seven weeks and I get a message on my answering machine from a shelter over an hour away..."we have your dog Hogan"! He is micro chipped so when he was found, they found us. Who finds their dog seven weeks after he runs away??? The Blazi's do! I drove over an hour with my two little ones to get that running dog and bring him on home!! We were so excited to have him home. We took extra care to keep him on a leash while we researched underground fences for crazy running dogs. He began to warm back up to us and before long I made the biggest mistake. I trusted him. He began to get where I could let him out and he wouldn't run off and if he did run off he would come right back. One afternoon we were outside playing in the beautiful spring weather and Hogan was running around with the kids and he took off across the road. Charlie yelled..."Mom he is running away again"...to which I responded...."He'll come back...". Well, he didn't. We haven't seen him since that day about 3 weeks ago. We are sad...mad...and frustrated at running dog.

We got home from school last week and Charlie walks in the garage and sees Hogan's bed still laying on the floor and he said "I miss Hogan Mom....why did he run away when all we did was love him? He didn't know a good thing when he had it." I hugged him and told him I was sorry his dog was gone...that I missed him too...and that Charlie was the best dog owner ever and he loved Hogan the best he could...it wasn't his fault that Hogan didn't love us back!

I thought a lot about Hogan and why he ran. All of the questions that Charlie asked are the same ones that I was asking. We fed him...loved him...gave him shelter..shoot, we even tried to clothe him with a Georgia Bulldog Jersey...but he still left a good thing.

That is how so many of us are when it comes to our relationship with God. He loves us unconditionally...yet we run away from His best. We turn our backs and do things our way...we don't care about all that He has done for us. We run from His love, His protection, His providing hand, His comfort....from His best. We forget all that He has done....how He provided a sacrifice...how He has given us a Shelter...how He has provided a covering...and sometimes we disregard that...and run. It hurts my heart to know that I ran for 20 years of my life. That I lived my life anyway I wanted to with complete disregard to God....and there are so many people, just like me, that do it everyday. I would sense His pulling on my heart....I would run. I would see His love in the people I came across...I would run. I would see how He provided for others...and I kept running....until I couldn't run anymore. He took my feet off the path to hell and placed them on the path to heaven and I am so thankful for that!!

What makes me even more sad is not how I ran when I was lost...but how I sometimes run today. Sometimes I run from something that He wants me to do...I may run from opportunities He has laid out because of fear...I might run because of insecurities...I even run because I'm selfish...I run. My eyes were opened last week....I pray that I would run...but not away from Him. That I would run to Him in everything and always know what a "good" thing I have in HIM!!

I know that if I get a call from someone in the next week...3 months...2 years from now saying they have Hogan....I will go get him(without my husband's knowledge 'cause he's mad at the dog) 'cause I love Hogan....he's my dog, no matter how long he has been gone. I know that my love can't even compare to God's so that tells me this...no matter how long we have run...how far...or if we have never even met Him...that He still loves me and wants me...little old me...'cause I'm His! Hallelujah...what a savior!!!

And Hogan, if your out there big guy.....just come on home...we miss ya! You've still got a good thing here!

Tiny Truths for this Thursday:

~Hogan runs

~So do we...even when we have a good thing...

~We should run toward God just 'cause He loves us so

~God loves way bigger than I could ever love....even when we run!

1 Corinthians 9:24-26 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.