leave it!
does God lead us into temptation?
One of the commands that I am working on with Rocco is “Leave it!” Little buddy really loves his snacks and I’m tired of him trying to take my snacks too.
The way you teach this command is by bringing the dog’s attention to a treat.
Plot twist: you have an even better treat in the other hand. You say, “Leave it!” and as soon as they turn their head to the better treat, you give it to them. After doing this enough times, the dog learns to expect something better than what he sees.
Rocco actually did relatively well with this! That is, until we moved to trying to do it without receiving a better treat. Once he realized that he wasn’t going to get a better treat, he ate the one that I had just told him to leave.
This is how dog training is supposed to go: you give them treat after treat until finally they just do it whether they get a treat or not. The problem is that Rocco loves food way too much (honestly, same).
In a very real way, I was leading Rocco into temptation every single time we practiced “leave it!”. I could see in his little eyes and his tail that was wagging insanely fast that he wanted that treat. I knew that it would take a lot of effort
Why? To keep him safe. It’s important to me that Rocco listens to me so that he doesn’t get into something that hurts him.
On Friday, I wrote to you a little about the debate over the line in the Our Father that reads, “Lead us not into temptation.” God doesn’t lead us into temptation, right? So why would he ask us to pray, asking him to not lead us into temptation? After all, Jesus gave us the words to the Our Father.
I could go into translation issues here, but I don’t think that’s actually the most important thing about this. What is most important is to learn how God is loving us even in temptation.
After all, in the Garden of Eden God created temptation for Adam and Eve in the form of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He created that tree, which he didn’t want them to eat from. It’s like how I put a treat on the ground for Rocco even though I would tell him to leave it.
Adam and Eve could have avoided the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil at all cost. As soon as Satan started talking to them, they could have said no and walked away. At best, while conversing with Satan, they could have cried out to God for help.
But they didn’t, they tried to do it on their own. Just like Rocco, not trusting that I will give him a better treat if he can’t see it, Adam and Eve not only experienced temptation (which in and of itself is not a bad thing), they fell to it.
Our human story is a story of learning to trust God again and again. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew people needed to learn that they could trust God, who made a covenant with Abraham and led them out of slavery in Egypt. Now, we are tasked with trusting the God who became one of us and has loved us even to the point of death.
This is one of the reasons why the crucifix is so prevalent in the Catholic tradition— it is a constant reminder of the depth and extent of God’s love for us. When we look to the crucifix, we see God’s arms outstretched, essentially asking us, “Do you trust me now?”
When we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are saying, “God, I trust you already. I believe and am surrendering totally to your plan for me. You don’t need to lead me into temptation for me to trust you… I already do.”
Unless, of course, we don’t already trust Him. Then… being led into temptation is actually the best thing for us, as that is what brings us to our knees, begging for His grace, which is our source of eternal life.
Temptation cannot hurt us if we trust God.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t always trust God as much as I should. That’s probably why I find myself falling into temptation so often, despite regularly praying the Our Father.
Now, maybe there’s a big difference between Rocco eating a piece of a biscuit and us committing sin. Or maybe there isn’t. But just like I want Rocco to trust me when I give him commands, God wants us to trust in Him. And if we learn to trust God through temptations, then praise Him for that.
A few reminders:
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The Zoom Catholic Book Club is next Friday! There’s still plenty of time to get and read our book for this month, Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. It’s an easy read thriller and I can’t wait to see you, whether you’ve read the book or not.