Walking the Dog                                            From the Journal of Norma Johns

I truly believe God is releasing his power and authority to his believers so that we everyday people can work miracles.  We desperately need his miracle working ability.  While I was meditating on this, I thought of how desperate the United States was in the wake of 9/11, Katrina, and the war.  We used to say that even if the U.S. got in big trouble, Israel would bail us out.  They are not afraid of anything, yet an illegal army almost got the best of Israel.  So where do we go to hide from the dangers within and without.  We go the Rock, Jesus but before we take our position at the side of Jesus as we battle principalities and powers, we must first be called, atoned and chosen.  And getting rid of the ragged rags that have mummified us is not a pretty picture.  This leads me to tell you about something that happened during the Katrina catastrophe.  I don’t tell this to offend or make any one mad, it’s just in the midst of the most horrible situations we can find laughter.  Now my daughter, Kim is an animal lover, especially dogs.  She can see an old, mangy looking dog and beg to take it home.  Thank goodness she is married now so it’s her husband’s duty to tell her no. Kim is also a Type 1 diabetic. On a Sunday we were watching the absolute farce the debacle Katrina had made.  We were saying things like “I could make more progress if I strapped some water to a snail’s back and sent him off to those poor blighted people.”  Kim was lying on the couch, all wrapped up in blankets fighting off a chill.  Lewis, her husband, and I would be able to fix everything if they would just listen to us as we watched as Geraldo Rivera and his crew were saving a little old lady and her dog.  She had refused to leave without her dog.  We see her and her dog getting in the boat with Geraldo’s sidekick or head honcho helped her. The honcho was quite a dude with his 6 gallon hat and his sure enough cowboy boots.  The camera had a long shot of the two of them with Honcho leading little doggie toward the waiting plane.  The little fellow was briskly walking along but as they neared the plane, doggie began to balk.  Honcho paid him no mind but continued talking to little old lady.  By now doggie was actively fighting the noose, Honcho still did not look back.  All of a sudden, Kim jumped up, throwing off her mummy blankets yelling “what the blank are they doing to doggie”?  He was now on his back being pulled by Honcho.  Kim, weary from days of fighting the fever burst into a gusher of tears.  Lewis and I were so stunned, not by the TV but by Kim’s reaction, we started laughing and couldn’t stop.  Kim was raging at us but it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.  That scenario caught the very meaning of what we were doing to help our people.  You get a form of help but we have to kill your dog.  The moral?  Get on our knees and fight the principalities like a man and learn how to lead a dog (or people), not drag them.