I’ve written about Indifference before, most recently, on July 17. I needed to review and practice the concept this week…

Monday, December 22, we had to rehome our dog, Benji, after he lived with us just 14 months. I wrote about Benji in An Everyday Answer to Prayer on October 26, 2024. So here we are, a dog that was an answer to prayer, that we have really loved and enjoyed (most of the time!), committed a major doggy error which left me no choice but to rehome him. (I don’t want to publish the details.)

I’m not given to crying, but I teared up at the drop of a hat for the 48 hours between the incident and surrendering him to the shelter from whence he came. What to do? June said right before we went to bed 24 hours after the incident and the decision had been made, “I have decided not to let this get me down.” Ten minutes later I was reading about Jesuit leadership principles in Heroic Leadership by Chris Downey and this story was on the first page of that night’s reading:

A colleague once asked [Ignatius] Loyola [founder of the Jesuits] how long he would need to recover if the pope was ever to disband the Jesuits. Loyola’s response surely shocked his questioner, and it quickly found its way into Jesuit lore: “If I recollected myself in prayer for a quarter of an hour, I would be happy, and even happier than before.”

Perhaps there was a smidgen of posturing in his answer. Loyola had built what was rapidly becoming the world’s most influential and successful religious organization. Could he see it dismantled and then stroll away whistling after a mere fifteen minutes in prayer?

Posturing or not, Loyola was sending an unambiguous message grounded in the lessons of the [Ignatian Spiritual] Exercises. Jesuits achieved what we today would call ingenuity—a mix of adaptability, daring, speed, and good judgment—only by first cultivating the attitude he called “indifference.” – Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership, pages 117, 118.

If Ignatius of Loyola could give up his ministry and be happy, surely I could give up a dog! June and I are cultivating an attitude of indifference. We are allowing ourselves to be “unattached” to whether Benji stayed or left. I’m not quite sure all that’s involved, but when it comes to a dog, there are positives…

• Dogs in general are good companions, and Benji was no exception. He took naps with me. He sat with me when I worked (often while writing a blog!). He slept with us.
• Dogs express “emotion:” great joy when you come home after an absence, for example. Benji would run all over the house after grabbing Giraffe, his favorite toy. When June came home, he would hear the garage door (I wouldn’t) and bark excitedly until I opened the door to the garage, and he would greet her at the car’s door.
• Dogs can travel with you and take delight in new surroundings.

…and negatives:

• Dogs are a lot of trouble. They can’t be left unattended for long periods. They have to be walked periodically, regardless of weather.
• Benji barked at the slightest noise. He got better, but he could still disturb the peace with no notice.
• Benji hated other dogs, so I couldn’t visit with neighbors who were also walking their dogs.
• Benji didn’t like children (and we have eight grandchildren, three of whom are younger than 10).
• Benji didn’t like visitors or houseguests. It always took time for him to adjust.

So indifference in this case is really easy: there are positives and negatives. It would have been nice if he could have stayed, but it’s liberating that he’s gone. And we take joy in being liberated!

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. – Job, recorded in Job 1.21, ESV