A Calm Submissive State

When I watch TV, I love to watch programs that are about transformation.  Among my favorite shows is something on the National Geographic Channel called "The Dog Whisperer."  Cesar Millan understands dogs, understands how they think, what their body language is, and what makes them do the things they do.  More importantly, he knows how to rehabilitate dogs and train people to co-exist in a state where the human is the "pack leader" and the dog is in what he calls a "calm, submissive state."  Only in that state, he says, is a dog truly happy because a dog is a born follower.  If he decides that his pack leader isn't in charge, someone has to control things and the dog takes control.

Kind of sounds like what we do.  We stress ourselves to the max trying to control our situations, to manipulate things to be the way we want them, and all that gets us is more stress.  This leads to a state of dis-ease and can actually make us sick.

The dogs Cesar helps are from all breeds, including some of the breeds with the most vicious of reputations.  It never ceases to amaze me how he can take a "hopeless case" and work with the animal, no matter whether their problem is fear, aggression, or just an unstable environment, and put things right. I'm amazed by his patience, by his instinctive understanding of the animals, and by the way the animals do something that seems to be so hard for humans to do: live in the moment, unencumbered by the way things were in the past.  What a gift!  For the rare dog that is terrified by things associated with previous abuse, he, along with his pack of dogs, is able to lift that trapped soul out of its prison in a few short weeks.

What is remarkable about all these stories, as varied as they are, is that they have a common thread.  I've watched it happen over and over again.  When the dog finally understands that the human is in control of the situation, it doesn't sulk or mope around, and it doesn't rebel.  It submits.... and it relaxes - visibly.  The worried look, the suspicious glare, the snarl, all disappear as he enters that calm, submissive state that knows that the master is in control.  The dog trusts in that.  And he can lie down right next to the very thing that he feared or lunged at before.  Miraculous!

Here is a picture of us in all our weaknesses, fears, hangups and failures.  God steps in and starts to teach us that He is in control, that we don't have to be.

The problem is, we don't want to hear it.  We run away.  Or we lash out, biting the Hand that feeds us.


Slowly, patiently, calmly, He works things out in our lives such that we are placed alongside people who will show us how to live out the lessons He has been wanting to teach us.  These people might not even know Him (or we might think they don't).  But they do His will in our lives because He has allowed them to cross our path for a reason - to point out something that needs work, to teach us to trust, to be in a calm, submissive state in our relationship with God, knowing that He is in control, and that we can relax and rest in Him.

Only there can we find what we've been seeking all our lives.  Peace and contentment.