Dogs and Fleas
For most of my working life I taught in the Bend LaPine schools. Like any organization, a school is an orchestra of differing parts and roles, each in its place, and for us, with the goal of producing well-prepared young people ready to enter into the next phase of life. Whenever the leaders led with vision and integrity and the teachers taught with solid instruction and consistent discipline, and the students worked to learn and grow, each school in which I taught was really fun and productive.
I worked in four different schools over my time in BLPS, and for the most part they were healthy for students and staff alike. However, there were also times when no clear plan was evident from the head shed, and staff and students were not held accountable. In those years, some teachers gritched and complained or retreated to just “close my door and teach” and ignore the attitudes around the school, and since kids followed the lead of adults, it all resulted in a poorer place to work. Times like those reminded me of a saying taped to my desk for years that said,
A dog in a kennel howls at his fleas, but on the hunt he barely notices them.
People say that complaining (howling) is the coin of the realm in any organization. There is never an end to stuff we think should be done better. From my experience, gritching and moaning most often comes when folks are distracted from their mission and focus on smaller targets. When people are engaged in their work (paid or volunteer), and carry a sense of purpose, they are "on the hunt" and irritating matters can be overlooked or quickly resolved or moved past in light of the chase at hand. There will always be plenty of fleas around to howl at, but when a person is chasing stuff that matters, that one barely notices them.
When he wrote his letter to the newer believers in Philippi, I imagine Paul dictated with a smile on his face. This group was doing well together and pretty far down their road toward making a real difference in their town and region. But naturally, they were also fully human and filled with human tendencies. So, Paul reminds them in chapter 2 to keep chasing things that matter. Listen to his counsel.
So then, my dearest friends, as you have always followed my advice—and that not only when I was present to give it—so now that I am far away be keener than ever to work out the salvation that God has given you with the right sense of awe and responsibility. For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose. Do all you have to do without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be God's children, blameless, sincere and wholesome, living in a warped and diseased world, and shining there like lights in a dark place. For you hold in your hands the very words of life!
Paul reminds the Philippians that they hold "the very words of life", and to the community these Jesus-followers should be standing out in sharp relief as "lights in a dark place" of their society. That was their hunt: To bring hope and life to people just struggling with their burdens. As they pursued lives dedicated to God and to making Philippi grow all the more healthy, there was no room for the small-matter fleas to derail them. Sure, there were problems, but none worth grumbling and arguing over. Disagreements happen, but Paul says to keep them in proper perspective.
Occasionally, having studied Greek back in grad school comes in handy. The word translated "grumbling," sounded out, is something close to "gongoosmoos." Say it out loud one time. Now, say it with a snarl in your voice and a side-eyed glance. Can you see Paul? "Hey, gang, knock off the gongoosmoosing! It's not worthy of your time." Truth is ... I just like the sound of it. It is a bit onomatopoeic (that's my big word for the week). Still, if we are not on the hunt for meaningful things, we resemble a dog in the kennel where the fleas can bug us to distraction. Next stop: Gongoosmoosing and arguing (the Greek term for "arguing" isn't nearly as fun to say).
So, let's turn this around to you and me. Some questions arise in my mind.
What is my hunt? What pursuits are worthy of my time since I, too, hold the very words of life?
If I cannot identify my hunt, who can I talk with to sharpen my focus on all this?
Could I be described as a gongoosmooser? What things seem to set me on that course of thought and action?
Who can I tap to hold me accountable toward being less of a grumbler in order to break the habit? (and it really is a habit, not a trait)
All this may not scratch you where you itch, but it might bring to mind someone who needs the message. Remember, it is God who is at work in you, and you hold the very words of life—not just eternal life, but also a full, healthy, worthy, and positive life here and now. Possibly share this note with that grumbling friend and invite them in on your hunt and watch how quickly they forget about the fleas that so recently bugged the stuffing out of them, to the point they howled. Unhealthy habits are tough to change, but always worth the work.
Find your purpose and chase it with all you have. It is worth the effort. And...NO GONGOOSMOOSING!
Now, instrumental time!
How come my jokes are so bad? Who knows...but here they are
A young minister, in the first days of his first parish, was obliged to call upon the widow of an eccentric man who had just died.
Standing before the open casket and consoling the widow, he said,
"I know this must be a very hard blow, Mrs. Vernon. But we must remember that what we see here is the husk only, the shell. The nut has gone to heaven."
__________
On a cold day in December, some years ago, a little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.
A lady approached the young boy and said, "My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window."
"I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes," was the boy's reply.
The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.
She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.
By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair on the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes.
She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, "No doubt, you will be more comfortable now."
As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her, "Are you Mrs. God?"