Several years ago I was trying to help a friend study for a test to get into grad school. It was on that day of reading him vocabulary words that I learned the word, “lugubrious,” which means “excessively sad or mournful.” The only reason I remember that word after all these years, despite my poor memory, is that it perfectly describes our chocolate lab, named, Nittany. (Fans of college sports can guess where my wife went to school.)
Nittany has the saddest, most pathetic eyes you have ever seen. She has learned to use this look with devastating effectiveness. When she begs for scraps from the table (Please don’t tell our vet that we do give her scraps as I got chided for it last time I was there), she plants herself next to the chair and stares up at you with those “lugubrious” eyes. She never utters a sound and barely moves, although you are wise to watch for the drool. She is supremely confident in the power of her sad eyes to move me to pity and let her lick my plate. Only the most calloused person could resist her stare.
When I see my dog like this I am reminded of a saying by Martin Luther, the father of Protestant Christianity, “Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.”
Luther must have had a dog just like Nittany. When I think about it, Nittany is the model pray-er. She is totally focused. She never gets discouraged. And she knows who provides her all that she needs.
This is what prayer should be: focused and persistent, always seeking God.
Jesus said the same thing when he told the story of the woman who relentlessly kept after the judge until she received justice (Luke 18:1-8). That’s how we should pray: by returning to God again and again, confident that our prayers will be heard.
I wonder what else my dog has to teach me?
Johnston is the pastor at Clayton Presbyterian Church. He invites his readers to come by and share a cup of coffee with him at the Coffee Mill each Friday at 8:00 a.m or contact him at 
claytonpc.com