A Lot of Work

I have a big puppy dog.  Suzie Mango is almost 9-month-old and weighs over 80lbs and she still has that pup mentality.  Thankfully she is very well behaved, has a decent awareness of her surroundings, still a little clumsy and the only thing she cares about is food. 
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Very easy-going puppy, but the one thing that I didn’t realize is the amount that she sheds.  Man, oh man, it is bananas how much she sheds.  She sheds everyday but apparently right now, she is shedding like an entire dog’s worth of hair.  I seriously think I can make a miniature sculpture with the dog hair we collect.  When I get done playing with her, I am very furry because I am covered in her hair.  This requires me to take her outside to play, just so she doesn’t get a bunch of hair inside the house!

Vacuuming every day is a requirement in our household now.  So that required us to get a good vacuum that specializes in getting dog hair off from carpet and rugs.  So, I bought that really expensive Dyson cordless vacuum.  It’s probably one of the most expensive things we bought…. Item wise. 

But I must say it is well worth it!  A powerful vacuum handles Suzie’s shedding fur really easily. 

Now I am not sponsored by Dyson, but if anyone working for Dyson is reading this, I’ll advertise for you, let’s work out a contract!

But the point of me writing about dog hair and getting an expensive vacuum is simply that in life the things that can give us great joy and comfort require some hard work and investment.  Now investment is not necessarily about money, but it can be about time.

Our dog Suzie gives my family and I a great amount of joy.  Yeah, she sheds and it’s a lot of work cleaning everything up, and time consuming taking her outside so she can shed out there and needing an expensive vacuum to clean everything up.  Sounds like a lot of work and disrupts my daily routine.  But the biggest and best tradeoff is having Suzie part of our lives.

Think about your faith in the same way.  If we cherish it and it is something that should be giving us great amount of joy, then it does take our time investment, it does require us to do some work and living in faith may disrupt our daily routine, or at least having faith will require a new daily routine. 

Do not take your faith for granted.  Like my puppy dog Suzie, faith needs to be taken care of and requires us to do some work.  Afterall, all good things require us to do more work.  All good things require an investment of money and time.  So, treat your faith like any object of joy.  Invest time and money in it.  And it’s not just about praying and reading the Bible, that’s just the minimum.  Your faith is growing, and it will require you to invest more time, patience, and material that will help you give clarity in your beliefs. 

Faithful living, that is doing all we can to mimic the life of Christ and follow His commands will force us out of our daily routine.  Sometimes we have to go outside of comfort zone and experience how God is showing us something truly amazing, so don’t miss out on it!  When you choose to venture out of your comfort zone just have confidence that God is with you and is somehow guiding you so that your faithful living will continue to provide great joy and peace.

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