Thursday, March 19, 2015

God's gopher

I chased a gopher halfway across the yard today. I was on my way up to the... library... and I saw this lump of brown fur just sitting in the middle of the property. I thought that since it had seen me it would run the other way, but no. It began to make its way haltingly across my path. It would run a little. Stop. Run a little. Stop. Soon, it came right up behind a tree that was about 8 feet away from me. It had seen me at his point and was now hiding behind the tree. It was pretty freaking cute, in my manliest voice possible. Klutz that I am, I began fumbling with my Kindle, trying to get the camera activated so I could shoot a picture of the rotund beast, when it decided to mosey its way back in the direction it came.
Than came the best part: it tried to climb a tree. I really don't know if gophers climb trees by nature, or this was just one desperate gopher. I do have the appearance of one who would eat a gopher if I took a fancy to it, so I understand why it would be nervous. There was a squat, little, leaf-bear tree sitting in the middle of the field, and it was really not much taller than I was. So the poor gopher, in all its gopherly distress, ran to the base of the tree. I was standing there thinking: "Ha! It is trying to hide in the shadow of the tree! No wonder these things are spotted more often dead than alive!" When much to my surprise, it hoisted itself onto the lower branches. It looked very uncomfortable, wedged between two branches of a tree, plainly visible to anything that might be looking for a gopher to eat. After a brief moment in this predicament, it loosed itself, having decided that being stuck up a small tree in plain sight was not advantageous to the continuation of its species.
Then is began to make its way, fast as its little legs could carry it, back to the pine trees from whence it came. I chased it for a couple seconds, just to see how fast a frightened gopher could run. Them's pretty fast.
So as I was sitting here writing about this, it occurred to me: "Shoot, I act like a gopher."
In what way? Well, there is the generally accepted usage of the term "gopher" when referring to a human being which denotes a position of servitude. This is not the sense of "gopher" I am alluding to. What I mean is, I sometimes act like this particular gopher.
So God calls [me] to [the priesthood]. [I] run a little. Stop. [I] run a little. Stop. Then [I] finally get to [seminary]. [Seminary] can be like a tree. You can hide behind it, almost hoping God doesn't catch you there, or else He might ask you to run a little farther. Then, when you start to see God doing something in your life (like the gopher seeing me brandish my kindle), you run. It gets to be too much and you head for the hills. So then what happens? You climb a tree, trying to get away from God, because you're scared of what He's doing. For [me] this would mean [leaving seminary]. But, just like the gopher, HE STILL SEES YOU, GENIUS. And as it turns out, you are in a worse situation than you were before. 
Why all the brackets interspersed in my reflection? Because insert your name and your calling, and that gopher could be you, and if we are honest it is us, 98% of the time. So, let's not be gophers, shall we? At least, that particular gopher...

5 comments:

  1. Hmmmm...... Can't wait till Andrew weighs in on this one. :-)

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  2. Sorry I can't comment too lengthily on this one for now... I have 15 little gophers to go take care of... and they will climb a tree, or worse, if left unattended.

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