You, Me, and Animal Angst

Posted on Jan 25, 2022 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Trish Ann Konieczny

If you’re an animal lover like me, and you also love God, as I do, maybe you’ve felt the same animal angst that I’ve felt. I’ve often wrestled with the question, How can a believer who knows the eternal value of human souls justify spending any time wrapped up with animals? (Wasting time, some would say.)

As a believer, I know it’s not right to become so preoccupied with animals that I forget about the people who need help and salvation. I also know that I need to have God’s priorities, not my own. Yet, Lord, I’ve often asked, why did You create so many appealing creatures with fur and feathers? I’m drawn to them like a magnet. They take my breath away. They fill my soul . . .

Enter the animal angst. And the accompanying guilt. The accuser of our souls had me convinced that my fascination with animals was wrong and that God must want me to deny that part of my heart. I was passionate about everything animal, but I felt guilty about it all the time, thinking it was in conflict with what the Lord expected of me.

What didn’t occur to me is that God is not the kind of Father who would plant a passion in His child’s heart for something and then say, So that’s what you like best about My creation? Okay, you need to give that up for the rest of your life to work for Me . . .

In my skewed thinking, it took me a long time to realize that my desire to work with animals and my devotion to God didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Make no mistake—my love for God is such that I hope I’d give up anything for Him and count it a privilege. But it took the Holy Spirit’s help, through some wise Christian counsel, for me to figure out that it was okay to love both animals and people. What a lightbulb moment!

The Holy Spirit is good at turning on the lights for us. I signed up one time for a ministry-centered counseling session where the aim was to get to the root of anything hindering my connection with God. I made the appointment because I didn’t ever want my love of animals, or even my angst over them, to come between the Lord and me. Here’s how it went:

I arrive at the appointed hour and begin pouring out my heart to the session facilitator, telling her the same things I’m telling you. She listens for a bit. (Aren’t you grateful for people who minister with their listening skills?) She takes me through a spiritual checkup of sorts to make sure I’m not carrying a load of unforgiveness or some other soul-wrenching burden. Then she has me describe what I do with wildlife, so I fill her in on my rehabilitation activities.

Afterward, she pauses, thinks for a minute, and asks me a weird question: “When a Christian artist paints a picture that is his or her expression of worshiping God, do you judge it? Do you think it’s a waste of time and effort that the artist ought to be spending on holier things?”

“Of course not!” I answer. “I love seeing an artist paint or sketch a picture during a worship service. The result is always amazing.”

Then comes the telling question: “Did it ever occur to you that animals are your canvas? That working with them is one of the ways that you express your worship?”

Tilt.

“If you wouldn’t condemn a Christian artist for picking up paints and a paintbrush,” she goes on, “why do you condemn yourself for picking up and caring for an animal orphan?”

TILT.

“I . . . don’t . . . know.”

“Think about it. Pray about it,” she says. “I see the Father smiling on you when you care for one of His little creatures that need your help. You can do that and still minister to people, just as an artist can paint a picture and still minister. I believe the Father put it in your nurturing nature to express yourself in that way. I believe it’s how you’re made.”

I was speechless. I’m still turning that conversation over in my mind. I never want to use something like that as an excuse to let my life revolve around animals rather than revolving around God. I never want to neglect the people He wants me to reach. But I never again want to believe the lies of the enemy about my passionate heart, either.

What passion has God planted in your heart that you’ve wrestled with and wondered about and felt angst over? Could it be that your passion is a canvas He created you to worship on? I’ve learned that we can have God’s heart for people, and also for whatever passion He places inside us. It turns out that He made our hearts big enough to have room for both!