When Something Feels Off, Get Curious

Hey, my friend. I was working in my office the other day when our black Lab, Milo, came in and woofed at me.

Now, Milo does not just casually woof at me. In fact, if Milo is barking at me, I have learned to pay attention. Because his barking is generally reserved for emergencies. Like, I really need to go outside. Or, Something is wrong.

So when Milo came into my office and woofed at me, I got up. I opened the back door and let him outside.

My husband was sitting outside, so I told him what had happened. And he looked at me and said, “Milo just woofed at me to get in.”

Okay. Now I was confused. Because apparently Milo had woofed at both of us. But he didn’t seem to need to go potty. Nothing appeared to be wrong. So I went back to my office and got back to work. Milo stayed outside with my husband.

And eventually, we figured out what was going on. There was a bag of corn husks sitting in the yard. We had left it out there the night before, and for whatever reason, Milo was afraid of it.

That was it. The mysterious emergency? A bag of corn husks. Once we moved the bag, everything was fine.

And I have to admit, I laughed. Because this giant black Lab had been trying to tell us, “Something is not right out here!” And the thing he was concerned about didn’t seem concerning to us at all.

But it got me thinking about how often we do something similar in our own lives. We notice something. A reaction. A feeling. A thought that keeps coming back. Something that makes us uncomfortable. Something that seems out of the ordinary.

And our first instinct can be to dismiss it. That’s nothing. I’m overreacting. I shouldn’t feel this way. I just need to get over it.

And sometimes, of course, those things really are nothing. Just like Milo’s “emergency” was just a bag of corn husks.

But what if, instead of immediately dismissing what we notice, we became curious about it? What if we paused long enough to ask, What’s going on here?

That’s especially important when we’re healing. Because healing often involves learning to pay attention to the signals our bodies, hearts, and minds are giving us.

Not so that we can become hypervigilant. Not so that every uncomfortable feeling becomes a crisis. But so that we can become curious. We can notice. And then we can bring what we’ve noticed to God.

There’s a prayer in Psalm 139 that I keep coming back to: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

I love that this prayer isn’t, “God, I’ve figured everything out.” It’s an invitation.

Search me.

Know me.

Show me.

Lead me.

There’s a willingness here to pay attention to what’s happening inside us without assuming we already know what it means. And I think that’s such a good posture to take when there’s something we’re wrestling with.

• Maybe you’ve been asking God a question for a long time.
• Maybe there’s something from your past that keeps surfacing.
• Maybe you notice that certain situations make you anxious or angry or shut down.
• Maybe there’s a relationship where you keep having the same reaction, and you don’t quite understand why.
• Maybe you find yourself thinking about something over and over again.

Instead of immediately trying to make it go away, what if you got curious?

God, what are You inviting me to notice here? What is this reaction trying to tell me? Is there something underneath this that I haven’t paid attention to? What do You want me to know?

And maybe the answer will be something significant. Or maybe you’ll discover that, like Milo, you were reacting to a bag of corn husks.

Either way, curiosity gives you room to find out.

You don’t have to decide immediately what something means. You don’t have to solve it. You don’t have to turn one feeling into a diagnosis or one uncomfortable moment into a catastrophe.

You can simply notice. And ask questions. And bring those questions to the Lord.

I think sometimes we want God to answer our big questions with big, obvious answers. But perhaps part of listening to God is becoming attentive enough to notice the small things first. The little reactions. The repeated thoughts. The places where we tense up. The things we avoid. The moments when something inside us says, Wait. Pay attention. We can bring all of that to Him.

Journal Prompts

So today, I want to invite you to do just that. Think about something you’ve noticed recently that feels a little out of the ordinary. Maybe it’s a feeling. Maybe it’s a recurring thought. Maybe it’s a situation that seems to stir something deeper in you.

And rather than judging it or trying to push it away, sit with it for a few minutes. Get curious. You might even begin your journaling time with these words from Psalm 139: “Search me, God, and know my heart.”

Then ask yourself:

• What have I been noticing lately that I haven’t really stopped to explore?
• What happens inside me when I think about this situation?
• What am I tempted to dismiss or explain away?
• God, what might You be inviting me to notice?
• What questions do I want to bring honestly before You?
• What would it look like to become curious rather than afraid?
• And finally: God, what do You want me to know about this?

You don’t have to force an answer. You don’t have to figure everything out today. Just pay attention. Notice the woof. Get curious. And bring what you find to God.

Because sometimes the thing making all that noise really is an emergency. And sometimes it’s just a bag of corn husks. But we won’t know which one it is if we never stop to look.

I’ll see you next time.

RELATED EPISODES:

• Episode 191: What Laundry Taught Me About Emotional Overload
• Episode 149: What Are You Feeling Possessive Of?
• Episode 65: Learn to Linger with What Provokes You