Be like Ozzie; go near your master. (The power of prayer. Part 1.)
Since I restarted my faith journey, I’ve grown so much in maturity and humility. And my sense of gratitude and happiness has been growing by the day.
I am — quite frankly — in awe of God, and I simply shake my head in bewilderment and dismay (and even shock) that I ignored and ran from God for so long.
Now, it’s not like I ran from Him for decades. But even if it’s been months or years… How positively insane to blow off, take no notice of, and disregard the Creator of the universe.
It would be like a child staying closed off in his room, ignoring the loving invitations of his father, who’s upstairs and offering to feed him, clothe him better, and bless him with gifts he couldn’t possibly comprehend.
And the amazing thing about the Father — same as the hypothetical father in my analogy above — is that He will let you stay in that room as long as you want. Even your entire life (and for eternity), if that’s what you’d prefer.
We do have free will, after all, and God will never force us to do anything.
But he offers us numerous invitations to join him. And most of the time, we ignore them.
We’re too busy.
We’re too distracted.
We’re too ambitious.
Or, we’re too angry at Him.
And that’s okay. He shrugs off the “no’s” and just comes back and sends another invitation.
His loving pursuit never ends.
Life the father of a child staring down at the closed door of their child, God is waiting and hoping that you will finally accept that invitation.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about asking and receiving. The Bible, after all, says “Ask and you shall receive.”
People interpret those lines in many different ways. Some even go so far as to take it to the realm of the prosperity gospel.
I’ve never been one who could ask for things, unless it was in absolute desperation. “Poor but proud,” as we say in my neck of the woods. (And at least for me, there’s even a bit of manhood involved. I’m a man, and a Marine, too, for that matter. For much of my life, I thought I could handle things myself.)
And if you know me, I’ve been insanely ambitious (started a newspaper from scratch at the age of 27, have written a dozen books, and even produce a weekly podcast). I plan to write about the dangers of ambition in a future post, because I see now how destructive this has been.
I see how much unhappiness my ambition has caused.
Lately, I’ve been the exact opposite of ambitious. I’m done writing books as fast as I can (waking up early and going to bed late).
I’m done thinking I can make it as some kind of big-time podcaster or influencer.
Instead, I have been insanely grateful and I have been reading the Bible with a voracious appetite. I’ve also been trying to learn to pray more often and live as close to God as possible.
It’s been wonderful and addicting. And once you’ve tried this kind of life, once you’ve felt the love of God, the regular “joys” of life seem almost tasteless.
And as the love of God has been infecting me more and more, and as I’ve become just so thankful for everything I already have, I see what a moody child so many of us are even as we live as adults in the world.
Because even when we’re not asking for or praying for things (that downstairs door to our room is closed and we’re not answering it for anything), we’re still desiring them with our hearts. We want the nicer house, the brand-new car, the great job, the perfect spouse, you name it.
And it’s struck me how God must feel as he watches these thoughts and actions. Can you imagine as a father giving your kid a car that’s a few years old and having them say, “This works and all for the moment, but honestly, it’s not at all what I wanted. I wanted that one.” (Points to a Corvette or something.)
Or, “This house is pretty good. A starter home. Or one that will work for a while. But honestly, it’s not at all what I wanted. I wanted that one.” (Points to a mansion on the water.)
Or, “Man, I needed this job so bad. You know how hard I’ve searched for one — and gosh I hated that last job — but honestly, it’s not at all what I wanted. I wanted that one.” (Points at a six-figure job like a few people on the other side of town have.)
As an earthly parent, if your kid said these things, it’d absolutely break your heart. And you’d probably tell your child that they were being selfish and rude.
Yet we live our entire lives this way.
And honestly, the truth is that it gets scarier than even that.
Imagine you had given your child a new iPad or phone. They’ve wanted it for a long time and you love them so much, so you give it to them.
But then they’re so focused on it that it’s all they pay attention to. You call them and they ignore you. You take them on vacations and they barely care; instead, they’re looking down at that new device.
It’s all they care about.
From an earthly perspective, I’ve got to say I’d be tempted to ground my kid from that device. Or maybe even take it from them.
Thankfully, God is love and He has far more patience than one of us.
But I think we hurt His feelings with our greed and our ambition.
Perhaps most crazy of all, I think we probably actually harm our chances of greater love and blessings from Him when we take His gifts for granted.
I’m sorry, but we have to be real. You didn’t earn anything. God gave you the strength, the health, even your current breath, and you’re going to blow Him off and not be thankful for that? Not even thank Him? Not even acknowledge Him?! SERIOUSLY?!
I once knew a blind man named Ray, who’s now passed. He was one of the holiest men I’ve ever met, and he wouldn’t even take a drink of water from a water fountain without thanking God for it.
I think about how God must have seen him sometimes. “Here’s Ray, this child of mine, born blind from birth. He has so much less than those around him, and yet he worships me and thanks me even for the very water he drinks.”
God is love. But have you ever seen the absolute opposite of love?
I’m sure most would say it’s hate. Or selfishness. Or pick whatever word you choose.
But I often reflect on some dog photos that I came across.
They were hastily taken shots of a dog rescued on the side of the road by a neighbor near me. (He only barely caught it because it ran from him and others for several minutes on a very dangerous and busy road. Think of that?! This half-starved animal ran from his rescuers; from his salvation?! All because he didn’t trust people and had probably been harmed by them many times.)
You can tell from the photos that this dog does not believe it is worthy of love. It won’t even lift its tail or eyes to meet your look. It breaks my heart to know what this dog had gone through, and I’m so thankful it was rescued and is being loved now.
I’ll bet you that the dog believes it’s worthy of love at this moment. It’s probably fat and lazy, and would give its life for its master.
That’s what dogs do, after all. They’re man’s best friend.
Since restarting my faith journey in 2022, it’s hit me how much my own dog has taught me about God.
In fact, I have \written down a saying about him and it’s the first thing I see when I open my Bible file.
The words are simply: Be like Ozzie. Go near your Father.
You see, Ozzie was rescued a couple of years ago and he is the most loving dog I’ve ever had — and I’ve had many. He almost will not leave my side. If I’m upstairs working, he wants to be with me. (Right at my feet.)
If I walk to the restroom, he wants to follow me. He literally wants to go everywhere that I go.
It has gotten so bad that we blocked off half the house upstairs with a dog gate.
But he always follows me to it, and tries to block it, looking up at me. Like, “Daddy, please. Please let me go in your office. I won’t chew anything. I won’t do anything. I’ll just lay there.” (And usually, he actually does just lay there! 😂)
So many times, as I’m walking toward that door, I tell him “no” before we even get there. Or, “No, Ozzie. Not today. I’m super busy.”
As you can probably guess, when he’s in my office, he distracts me and I always stop working from time-to-time and just lay with him and love on him. How could you not?!
Here’s a picture:
I love that dog. And you know what? I spoil that dog. (And I’m also acutely aware that he has separation anxiety so we try to minimize that.)
But back to the point, when Ozzie is in my office, he gets a small amount of whatever I’m eating. Chips, dry cereal, some of my peanuts, etc.
I can’t NOT share it with him, as long as he doesn’t beg. He can sit near me, but he can’t make noises, put his paw on me, etc. I’ve never been a fan of dogs begging, but I’m getting off the point.
I’m mainly sharing this because Ozzie isn’t my only dog. We have another one. Her name is Sailor.
Sailor is — frankly — old and grumpy. 😅 But even when she wasn’t old, she never really loved attention.
If you pick her up, she tries to jump down. She almost never comes up to you, and if you go pet her, after a moment or two, she’s had more than enough.
It’s almost odd dog behavior, but we still love her and treat her well (and mostly leave her alone, because she does not like to be woken up and sleeps most of the day! 😆). She’s happy with the smallest amounts of attention and just lays on her bed and naps a lot.
And it strikes me that in life, we can be like Ozzie or we can be like Sailor.
We can love and be loved, receiving oh-so-much more in your Father’s office/study. Or we can stay in our bed (or up in that room with the door closed).
We truly get to choose.
And while I’ll never be brave enough (or greedy enough) to ask God for a better home or car, I think it’s no accident that in the past year, I’ve been blessed in some ways I could have never predicted or anticipated — and probably didn’t deserve.
God’s ways are mysterious and I’m certainly no expert on them.
But I have learned a few things:
You have the opportunity to open the door and accept the invitation to be near your Father.
You probably aren’t doing yourself any favors by being greedy. Not being grateful and desiring more is probably a great way to not get something in addition to that ipad your parents just bought you. (Even in Buddhism, when I closely studied that, desire is considered a poison and called the root of all suffering. You could probably add comparison in with this, and we know how much we compare now since we so often look at social media.) This is all wrong. I think God wants us to be grateful for what we have, even if it’s a single drink of water (if you’re Ray) or a single chip (if you’re Ozzie).
Finally, I’ve learned that if you want to sit in your room downstairs and keep the door closed (or on your bed and sleep all day), I think God will allow you to do that. Yet while he will allow it (and the consequences that follow such a decision) I think there’s a better way.
In my opinion, we should all strive to be like Ozzie. Go near your Father.
I promise you, He’s waiting to hear from you and it’ll most definitely change your life.
Don’t miss: The power of prayer. Part 2.
To God be the glory,
Stan R. Mitchell
Don’t forget: You can comment anytime, and I’ll answer quickly! You can also reach out privately at: authorstanrmitchell@yahoo.com. (You can say “hi,” tell me your story, or ask questions! I love all three of those things!)
Also, don’t forget about my weekly podcast. I think it’ll help lower your blood pressure and renew your faith in the country.
