How Long is Your Leash?

I think that I am on a roll!  LOL  This morning, I had a conversation with my roomie about this retractable leash that she gave me.  We had been fussing a few weeks ago about my technique ,or lack there of, in retracting the leash when a car is coming down our alley way so as to protect the dog.  Well, anyway, to make the long story short- the leash broke this morning as you may have read and my roomie was nice enough to fix it.  But, I in my stubborn way and our fussing about my technique...LOL....decided I was going to go back to the old way of walking the dog- a plain old 6 ft leash because as I mentioned in the last post- I am going to be her Master again. 

So, I hooked our old leash to her collar and off we went.  As we were walking, I was thinking about the issue I have with the other leash.  You see, I like it because its 20 feet as opposed to 6 and so when she wants to play with the other dogs as we are walking- she has the freedom to do so.  The problem lies when she has stretched the leash out to its limit and a car is coming.  I find myself tugging on the actual leash to get her out of harms way because the leash won't retract.  At least for me it won't.  Anyway, all of this is to say that here we have yet another lesson for the day.  I think that God likes us on a shorter leash.  We talked in the last post about staying close to the Master and the importance of doing so.  When we have extra cord that takes us further away, it's harder for Him to get us back.  A shorter leash is easier to manage and to wrangle back in when pending danger is coming near.  I do believe that we have the choice to stay close or to walk further away.  That would be Free Will.  God is not going to tie us up to the tree and try to keep us confined but rather is going to give us the freedom to learn and to grow.  The question is are we going to be connected to Him with a short leash or a long one?  The choice is ours.

Don't be fooled.  You can be on a short leash and still get into trouble.  For example, when I was in College, I was a new Christian and I had gotten into a relationship that was not pleasing to God.  I was trying to be in the world and be a Christian at the same time, but it wasn't working.  I was in turmoil a lot as to whether or not this relationship was ok with God.  Some days it seemed so and most days it didn't.  My leash began to grow.  During this time, I was involved in my home church and in the Campus Ministry and as my relationship with God grew, the shorter the leash became and the more I knew that I had to exit this relationship stage left.  God didn't chase after me.  He let me go and do my thing kind of like the prodigal son; but, at the same time, He never left my side and always waited for me to come back.  I came to realize that my leash had gotten to long and was coming close to breaking and that I needed to lean in to Jesus for repair. And thus I did.

How long is your leash?