How Did Lisa Write a Book?

The beginning of Lisa’s life was pretty normal for a dog. We lived in a middle class home in southern California. We had a walled in back yard and a pet door. While my kids were at school and I was at work, Lisa could run in and out of the house as often as she liked.

Lisa had a lot of adventures for a dog, though. I did the marketing for an RV manufacturer and when we needed photos of a happy family camping for an ad, Lisa got to be in those photos. When we filmed a commercial on location at the beach, Lisa came along. She even got to fly on a plane once.

Later we moved to Washington State. Lisa enjoyed the wide open world of nature and joined me on dozens of hikes through the mountains and rain forests. My mother was getting elderly and I move

d her up here to be close. When she moved into a nursing home, I brought Lisa in to visit. She was quite a hit with everyone and we would walk around and let her sit on the laps of the residents.

During that time, I had a lot of issues in my life that I thought I could ignore and outrun. But over the years, they not only didn’t go away, they got worse. I realized that I needed help. I joined a group called Celebrate Recovery and began taking small, tentative steps towards healing. Part of Celebrate Recovery was sharing your story in front of the group. I shared parts of my story many times over the years.

It was when I was caught in the rain with Lisa and we had to rush through the dark woods [The place of shadows and death in Lisa’s Testimony] that I realized that she had a story, too. I knew she was terrified and no matter how soothingly I talked to her, she couldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t hear me and while she was on the ground she fiercely pulled on her leash to go back the way that we had come which would have taken so much longer to get home.

I realized that this was often the way I was with God. I didn’t always understand Him. I wanted to do things my way. I thought I knew best.

I thought back to when Lisa was spayed. Not only was this the most frightening moment of her life, I realized that there would never be a time when she would understand what it was about. And that is the way it is with God. There are things in our lives that we will never understand in this life. But one day, we will meet with God face to face. We will know the full impact of His love for us and the things we didn’t understand on this earth will finally be made clear.

From those two experiences, the seed that became Lisa’s testimony germinated. It was shared at Celebrate Recovery – possibly the only testimony from a dog to ever to be presented there. Even years later, people would comment on how her testimony touched them. I was encouraged to make it into a book and that’s how Lisa’s Testimony: A Dog’s Walk Through the 23rd Psalm was born.