Transparent Christian Magazine

I have a dog. She’s a Neapolitan Mastiff and weighs in at a few notches over a hundred pounds. Her name is Cash and her chocolate and black colored fur, spotted with a white diamond on her chest and behind her paws can be found on and in everything I own. She’s stubborn at times, loving all the time and slobbers most of the time. She helps me write songs, she brightens my day after long hours in studios or at events, and she’s a great listener.

Right now, I’m on my way to L.A. for a business trip. I can look outside the window of my plane and see mountains over some part of our country. I fell asleep early in the flight, so I couldn’t tell you where I am. But as I look over the landscape with the sun stretching across the horizon and the clouds streaked like they were painted, I’m noticing something familiar. Those folds and creases in our earth look so similar to Cash’s cheeks. If you’re not familiar with the Mastiff breed, they are known for their adorable folds and what I like to call “extra love.” Carefully crafted and sculpted, Cash’s face is perfect to me. I always trace her cheeks while she pretends to be a lap dog because it helps her sleep. If you asked me what I love most about her, I would tell you how fast she can fall asleep anywhere as long as I’m petting her.

I feel like God has that same love for us. I feel like He adores me the same way that I adore Cash. I feel like He traces His hand over the callouses in my heart to help calm me the same way I trace Cash’s cheeks to help her sleep. I feel like God designed you and I with every wrinkle, hair, fingernail, bone and imperfection just so He can grow to love us more for the skin we are in. I feel like He created our hearts that beat and offer this invisible force we call love to show a little more of Himself. I feel like every time I look at the unconditional love staring back at me in Cash’s big, brown, droopy eyes, I see a little more of what God intended for love.

I want to tell you something about love. The concept of the word to me 10 years ago was limited to my family and whatever girl I imagined would stand at the alter with me. The meaning of the word 5 years ago went on to include my Les Paul, Celine. What love has grown to mean to me over the past 22, almost 23 years is simple. Without condition. Without condition, love people endlessly. I’ve learned in my life that if I love people the way Cash loves me, God comes through to build seeds in peoples lives. I’ve learned that the more I swallow my pride and turn off that little voice that says “it might be uncomfortable or awkward,” the more God physically reaches people.

I want to tell you something else about love. I was in Michigan a few years ago leading a bible study with some close friends. We were doing a teaching by Tommy Nelson on Song of Solomon for about 30 college kids. The first night we came together, no one knew each other and no one really cared, because we were all there for a common purpose: to learn more about what God intended for love for a significant other. As the night came to a close, all of the girls came to the middle of the room for prayer. Us guys had gone upstairs previously to do our own mens study before joining the girls. We quietly crept down the stairs and without thinking circled around our sisters in Christ, joined hands and started praying out-loud whatever God wanted to say to these young woman. Tears began pouring from the eyes of everyone as God spoke so strongly and affirming about sexual and emotional abuse no longer being a chain to hold any of us. We prayed out in joy as years of heartache simply melted away from the souls of these young woman finally coming to terms with how much God loved them.

I loved every single person in that room as hard as I could and still do to this day.

Here’s what I’m going ask you. What if healing heartache and pain was conditional? Meaning the influence we have in each others lives directly reflects how fast or how well we heal. It’s simple. It doesn’t matter how bad my day has been or how tired I am, those droopy brown eyes are always looking back at me with love that doesn’t increase or decrease because of the Snausages I give or don’t give her. What if my blue eyes looked back at you with that same love no matter what trial you’ve faced? What if the love that’s in you has the opportunity to save the faith of someone teetering on the edge of growing numb to God? You can love unconditionally, because I believe deep down everyone is capable of it. What if the next person you spend time with NEEDS your love?

If my dog can do it, I can do it.

Josh