A Tail's Tale Retold

A squirrel reminded me of an incident with our little dog not long after bringing him into our family two years ago. The puppy had his first experience with a squirrel’s tail, a tail he wanted but didn’t know what to do with it once it was his. He spent hours whining, burying it, unburying, hiding, and unhiding what he thought he wanted. In desperation, he sat before me with the tail dangling from his mouth and looked up at me as if saying, “Please take this from me!” I asked him if he wanted me to take it, and with that, he dropped it at my feet and walked away without looking back. Sometimes we’re like Scout. We want something badly but later regret the decision once we have it. When we no longer want it because of the grief it causes, we look for ways to rid ourselves of it.

King David didn’t want enemies to rise against him, nor did he long for a friend to betray him. But he knew what to do with the troubles God allowed in his life: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). The “man after God’s heart” threw the weight of his cares on Jehovah, depending on and trusting Him to sustain him through life’s challenges.

No matter how trivial or weighty an anxiety, trouble, or grief, we can have the same confidence in our Savior and say like David, “As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me” (v. 16). If you live rightly with God and rely on Him, He will guard you against being shaken. So, hurl those burdens onto our caring and faithful God—no looking back.