Nov 17 2009
Is Your Tail Wagging?
(Note: Sorry it has been so long since I updated! I’ve had back pain problems for several weeks and while I’ve had plenty of witty little things I could have posted, they didn’t seem an appropriate follow-up to the previous post (which, by the way, has been viewed 4 times as many times as anything I’ve ever posted about). The following is the bulletin article to appear in this weeks bulletin at church. I post it here because a) this desperately needs updating and b) I’m too lazy to write TWICE in one day.)
Is Your Tail Wagging?
Would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
My dog has quite a personality. Though he cannot speak, he is perfectly capable of communicating anger, affection, concern, happiness, grumpiness, etc. He has even been known to hold a grudge for a full day if I treat him unfairly! I have had “Fred” for almost two years and have grown pretty good at reading his facial expressions and body language. Those who have never owned a dog may think it strange that dogs are referred to as “man’s best friend,” but I’ve learned just how eerily human their personalities can be at times. However, there is one thing about Fred that is distinctly inhuman: He is completely incapable of hiding happiness.
When we humans are upset with someone or dislike something we express it in words, facial expressions, body language, etc. If the person we are upset with says something we like or does something to make us happy, we are capable of concealing our happiness in order to give the impression that we are still upset (How many dozens and dozens of roses have been met with this (non)reaction?!). Fred is incapable of such deception. He could be growling at me and literally about to bite my ankle, but if I merely said the word “park” his tail would start wagging uncontrollably. His face might say “I dislike this” but his tail says “I’m lovin’ it!”
Can you imagine how frustrating it would be if humans had been given such a ‘tell’? The ability to conceal our impulsive feelings is not just used for deception or manipulation. There are times when it would be tactless to fully express our emotion upon receiving some bit of information. Indeed, we are blessed to be able to control when and how we express our emotion.
That said, perhaps “man’s best friend” can serve as a reminder to us of an essential truth – you can hide nothing from Yahweh. No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Heb 4:13). Over and over in the Scripture we are reminded that God not only sees the expression of our emotion but the source of it – the heart. The Lord “knows all hearts.”
Many times, this works to our advantage. There are times when we just do not know how to adequately express what we are feeling to the Lord. He knows. I’ve often heard it taught, based on Romans 8:26, that part of the Holy Spirit’s role is to ‘interpret’ the inward groanings of someone who prays to the Lord. I believe this is a misinterpretation of the passage since in the context it seems clear to me that the “groanings” in Romans 8:26 are the Spirit’s groaning rather than man’s, but we don’t need Romans 8:26 to know that our God can understand even our deepest emotions. We describe it as ‘inward groaning’ because it is frustrating not to be able to express the deep pain, hurt, joy, desire, etc. But He knows. He knows because He can see our “tail” – our heart. He knows our heart even better than we do! (1 John 3:20)
However, we should also be reminded that this same divine knowledge which gives us comfort when we want to express our emotions (but can’t find the words) also reveals our true emotions when we do not want God to know. We can hide nothing from Him – including our emotions. We may say with our mouth that we have no desire to participate in some particular sin, but does what the Lord sees in our heart correspond to that?
Consider this: When you decry the immorality which has flooded our culture, is your tail wagging? When you say that you want nothing to do with dishonesty, is your tail wagging? When you claim to look only to the word of God for authority and decry reliance upon human tradition, is your tail wagging? When you express your dislike for divisive men and silly controversies, is your tail wagging?
How ridiculous we would look had God given us actual tails which betrayed our true feelings!
How ridiculous we must look to God at times.
Realizing our naked exposure before the Lord, we must purify our hearts and renounce evil not only in our words and actions but in our very hearts such that we can join in the sentiment of the Psalmist in Psalm 139:23-24:
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!