The above German phrase means, literally, ‘carrying the dog to the hunt’. Dogs would normally like hunting. But the dog is resisting and needs to be carried.
“You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you,” (St Augustine, Confessions)
My natural place, it appears, is this:
“We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads in the clouds with Him, but that our feet ought to be firmly planted on earth.” (Chapter 9, Big Book)
My head gets stuck on earth, however, and, whilst its natural place is in the clouds, I’ve often had to be pushed, cajoled, or even dragged in the right direction.
Other people have very little impact in this regard. God seems to have two very good tools at his disposal, however:
“Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were.” (Chapter 4, Big Book)
“Then perhaps life, as it has a way of doing, suddenly hands us a great big lump that we can’t begin to swallow, let alone digest.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions)
Active alcoholism plus active materialism together have dragged me, the dog, to the hunt out of both, for God.