Copycat: The Valley and Mountaintop

Every mountaintop comes with its valleys (taken in Oregon - November 2025)

No offense, but if you haven’t heard of Bluey, an animated show about a dog family, and the main character is a six-year-old – Bluey – who has a younger sibling (Bingo) and supportive parents who have as creative of an imagination as her, then you lived under a rock up until this very moment. I also forgive you if you’re not a parent or grandparent of a toddler in 2026, otherwise your chances of not knowing anything about the show just went up.

 

For me personally, it is an inspiration for how I can aide my own young son’s blossoming personality and imagination without sabotaging it. The show’s creators do an amazing job depicting Bandit, the father, as all-in and constantly coming up with games to engage his kids. Nearly every episode shows him actively participating in whatever Bluey and Bingo’s imagination concoct for that episode.

 

In one episode, Bluey wants to play Copycat, and the episode begins with her doing exactly what her dad does right when he gets up for the day. She does a remarkable job, until she spots an injured bird. Immediately, her instincts to care for the less fortunate kick in and puts all of her focus on caring for this bird.

 

Chances are high that if you’re a parent, you’re not going to spoil it for your child – if you do not have a child, you likely don’t care enough about the outcome of one Bluey episode to worry about whether I provide spoilers or not. Of course, if you do care regardless, don’t read further.

 

Here’s the spoiler: the bird dies.

(I promise it's a show for kids)

 

This is important because it looks to completely derail Bluey, and what child wouldn’t be?

 

Then, Bluey decides to do something that changes the trajectory of the episode: she plays Copycat with Bingo, her younger sister, and Bing plays the bird. In the episode, this is clearly Bluey’s way of coping with the pain. Bingo, like any young sister not older than preschool age, does little to follow the script, and it aggravates Bluey because she wants it to be identical to her bird experience with her dad.

 

She wants it to be the exact same.

Early on, when Bluey and her dad find the bird, the bird nips at dad and in response, with fist clenched, he whispers to himself, “Toughen up, Bandit!”

 

At the beginning of Bluey’s Copycat activity with her younger sister moments later, Bluey tells Bingo she has to nip her, like the bird did to Bandit. When Bingo bites Bluey, she tells Bingo that was not a nip, but then she whispers to herself, “Toughen up, Bluey!”

 

At this point, you’ll just have to watch the episode. At the end of the episode, while mom and Bluey are sitting on the porch steps and Bingo is flying around like a living bird even though she should be pretend “dead,” dad reminds Bluey that she forgot to stop copying him.

 

“Oh yeah!” She says, though she makes no attempt to keep the game going.

 

Yet, throughout the episode, she does copy dad, even when she is pretending Bingo is the dead bird. Not only does she tell herself to toughen up like her dad did, but when both Bluey’s dad and her found out the real bird died, Bandit said, “…there’s nothing we can do. It’s out of our hands.”

When Bingo stays alive as a pretend bird and flies around, Bluey initially gets frustrated because they are supposed to pretend as accurately as possible. When mom connects the dots and asks, “That’s not how you wanted the game to go, is it?”

 

“That’s okay. There’s nothing we can do. It’s out of our hands” – exactly what dad said.

 

When we have an amazing experience with Jesus, we want to copy him and everything he did and does. We want to change everything in our own lives and the lives of others, which is a noble desire.

But, because we are not God, we often come across points where we don’t intentionally mimic the way of Jesus. Oswald Chambers calls it, “the drudgery of the valley” versus the height of the mountaintop. When we have a breathtaking experience with God, whether in prayer, worship, long walks in nature, etc. these are mountaintop experiences. The valley is where temptations, humiliation, slip-ups, and un-Christlike behavior is likely going to occur. In addition, it’s also where it feels like there is distance from God – struggle, hurt, pain, obstacles, etc. But just because we’re in the valley, there’s no law against taking the Word of God and his presence with us. In fact, this is precisely what God wants.

 

When Bluey was temporarily interrupted from her time with her dad and focused on the bird, then with Bingo acting like a pretend bird, she didn’t forget her dad’s words. They were “hidden in her heart”, like Psalm 119:11 says.

 

Maybe the injured bird of your life places you smack dab in the middle of a valley you never wanted. Who does want a valley? Maybe you shout, “This is not how it is supposed to go!” But then you remember to “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding,” (Proverbs 3:5-6) or to “not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God…will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Bluey took her dad’s words and applied them to her own life when she felt like she was on her own in dealing with her pain. The words of her dad pulled her through the valley of losing a bird she cared for and about.

 

Chambers adds, “The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all power in heaven and earth belonged to Jesus. Will you see it now in the valley?”

Elmo, The Hippocampus, Paul, and God

Have you ever been in a Kohl’s or Target that is closing in 10 minutes and you’re one of 3 customers left in the store? You know it’s closing soon even without the intercom reminding you to head to the checkout lanes because that’s when the smooth jazz or Bruno Mars comes on. Sometimes, you wonder if you’ve heard the song before but don’t remember where from.

 

Well, I can now say I have entered into new territory when it comes to niche places to have music enter your brain and get stuck in the depths of it.

 

It was June 1^st, 2026, and my brain was playing this faint melody was doing that “smooth jazz when Target is closing” again. Only this time, I was at home and realizing there’s no way to look up the song when all that’s playing is the beat in my mind. Even as I write, I have drawn the conclusion that I can’t even write the beat down without the lyrics helping that beat come to life.

 

Though we usually remember him as helping toddlers with the ABCs, teaching us about how bees protect their queen, and interacting with other puppets on the famous Sesame Street, Elmo helped me in an unusual way: remembering the song that was stuck in my head.

 

Aside from changing poopy diapers, cutting up sweet potatoes into chewable sizes for a baby’s mouth, and playing Bluey on repeat for several hours, having Elmo’s “Letter of the Day: A!” song stuck in my head rather than any song an adult would hear on the radio is the ultimate indicator parenting season is here and there’s no turning back.

 

The point is, God designed the brain this way on purpose. What our senses capture – whether it’s hearing, tasting, feeling, sight, or smelling, our brain reminds us what we sensed. It’s why people who see something they wish they didn’t say, “I can’t unsee that,” or they cringe when an unwanted song comes on because they’re bound to spend the rest of the day trying to dislodge it from their brain – but too late, it’s stuck there.

 

By now, it sounds like God is using the brain to torture us, but here’s the truth:

It’s about what we choose to put inside our brain that counts.

 

According to WebMD.com, “[The Hippocampus’] largest job is to hold short-term memories and transfer them to long-term storage in our brains.” Outside of memory, the Hippocampus is also responsible for learning and emotion. WebMD also points out that since the Hippocampus of the brain deals with memories, and memories are involved with every day life, it plays an important, complex role. Therefore, it can “talk” to other parts of the brain, and it needs to if it deals with such a vital part survival. For example, we need to rely on what we remember about cooking if we want to feed ourselves. If we get a deep cut in our arm, we need to rely on memory and learned behavior to provide aid to the cut so it doesn’t become an infection. Or, in the corporate world, we need to rely on not only what we recall from memory, but our ability to adapt and learn better ways of doing the same thing if we are to remain effective in the work place.

 

One example from my own life of my senses developing a short-term memory into a long term one is when I bought the Newsboys album, Thrive (this was the Peter Furler Newsboys that I grew up listening to 20+ years ago) right before Spring break around 2002. I was in eight grade, and my family and I were headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama from Michigan in our little minivan, and that entire trip and this album will have an eternal bond that no one can break. When I hear “Million Pieces,” “Live in Stereo,” and “The Fad of the Land,” I am immediately transported back to the 2002 on 21^st floor of our condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The sound of the album creates the long-term memory I had of Alabama and the fun times created there. It brings the memories from 25 years ago to the front of my mind like I went there just last month.

 

Back to Elmo, if I spend enough time with him through watching Netflix episodes, or listening to his music on Spotify, then his voice is going to play a big role in my brain and his catchy tune will transport me back to the many other times I listened and/or experienced Elmo.

 

When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, his desire was for the people to focus on good things; in so many words, to fill the Hippocampus with things of God: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8-9, NLT) But then, he adds this zinger: “Keep putting to practice all you learned and received from me – everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 

I believe this: to allow Elmo to truly invade the Hippocampus of my brain, I need to listen and put his words to practice. More fitting would be if my toddler listened to Elmo’s catchy song, then practiced what the little red puppet monster sang in the song. Next thing you know, Calvin is speaking in full sentences by two years old because of Elmo’s hit song.

 

Or, in my case, put people like Paul in my life and fill my day the words of God on a daily basis that draws me closer to the Truth and what God says about me. The Hippocampus wants and “thrives” off of connection with God. Why wouldn’t it? If Paul is as connected to Christ as he says in all of his letters – in Acts 20:24, he says, “None of these things move me…so that I finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus”) – then if the church in Philippi would be wise to practice all they “learned and received from [him].”

 

Choose today to fill your brain with Paul’s words, Jesus’ words, and the words of God. Choose today to surround yourself with people who love God deeply. Fuel your Hippocampus with memories with the Lord, and let it transfer those short-term memories to long-term.

 

“…Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 

According to Paul

 

“What’s the letter? Clap, clap. What’s the Letter? Clap, clap.”

 

According to Elmo.

 

Your Gethsemane vs. Your Agenda: Revisiting Your Priorities

 

Meet Diggs, a French Bulldog who is a bulldozer driven by a spatially unaware, uneducated, and unnecessarily aggressive brain. You may see a dog who loves his naps, but don't let his relaxed disposition fool you. Once you show any desire to play with him, he's like a little football player who has no off switch and will do anything to secure a loose football - like rolling back a wind-up car until you hear the loud clicking noise, then releasing it.

If those metaphors don't do the trick, imagine you have a squeaky red ball in your hand. Less than three feet in front of you is a drooling dog struggling to remain seated in an effort to get what he eagerly desires: to catch the elusive ball and show how inferior it is compared to him. If you were to put ADHD, obsessive compulsion, and squeaky ball idolatry into one animal, it would be Diggs. 

A story like the one above is only the tip of the iceberg full of stories that make our pup adorable, quirky, and unique from the rest of his canine counterparts. To say he has a personality is simplest way to describe him. His response to any toy would prompt anyone to reasonably ask, "What is going through Diggs' head?" The answer: "Toy" and "I will show I am better than toy." 

"Treat" and "Food" are alternatives, but we'll save these additional hobbies for another time.

The funniest, yet mildly most dangerous part about Diggs and his fascination for squeaky toys is how clumsy he is when the toy is dangling in front of him. He will jump, run over Stella, slide into walls, and even bump his head on coffee tables just for the pleasure and joy of claiming the toy as his own and proving he has control over it - even if it ends in an all-out tug of war competition. 

Unfortunately, what drives Diggs' ineptitude and unawareness is his overly aggressive, intense pace in which he lives his life. For example, his sister Frenchie, Stella, the smaller and feebler of the pair, will lovingly approach me in hopes for an encouraging "Who's a good girl," a pat on the head, a belly scratch, or any combination of the three. Once Diggs catches wind of this, he will go Bulldozer Mode into Stella to get an equal amount of attention, which is where I see his aggressive nature come out most.

Unfortunately, Diggs doesn't know when he's not careful, and he certainly doesn't know how to be more aware of his surroundings even if we gave him treats to help him. We can train him to sit and wait, which he does do while violently shaking like a K9 police dog being held back seconds before attacking a drug lord. But to tell Diggs to stop or calm down in order to master awareness would be like trying to teach a carrot to use self-defense before getting eaten. 

In fact, I have found that the only difference between training a carrot to use self-defense and Diggs to use manners through mindfulness is when I can promise him food 5-10 seconds later. Rarely, Diggs prefers his red ball over food, so food is a clear favorite no matter what. That being said, the only way he will voluntarily slow down the pace of his life is if food is in the deal.

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Duh. It's a dog. They don't think about mindfulness the way we do." I can't speak for you, but I often feel I am closer to Diggs' mindfulness level than I am to Gandhi. I am as impulsive as they come, especially when, right in front of my eyes, is something I really want to do or have. The moment a "toy" is dangling in front of me, I will do anything to grab a piece of it, even if I bump my head or plow into other people to get it. I lose all sense of what my priorities are in order to accomplish what I want or get what I am after. My wife calls it "fixation," and she couldn't be more accurate. When I become fixated on certain parts of my day, thoughts in my head, or the whereabouts of a misplaced item, everything else gets shoved to the backburner for a period of time; if longer than a period of time, my wife often has to dig me out of the mental and emotional mess I made through the unnecessary fixation grave I fall into. 

It would be unfair to put everyone under the same umbrella of impulsivity and mindless thinking, especially the type A personalities who can pridefully create a daily agenda and pound it out with perfection with little to no distractions derailing the schedule. But in a general sense, we live in a distraction-filled world more now than ever before. As Rich Villodas writes in his book, The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus, "Our world continues on, faster and busier, and we are reminded that our souls were not created for the kind of speed to which we have grown accustomed. Thus, we are a people who are out of rhythm, a people with too much to do and not enough time to do it." We may say we've nailed down the perfect routine, but the more we fill our days with things to do, the more other needs get pushed aside.

Unfortunately, and more often than not, our time with God is what takes the back seat; in fact, sometimes we even kick him out of the car altogether when we idolize other aspects of our agenda.

N.T. Wright introduces the paradox of living in union with God by writing, "It is only when we slow down our lives that we can catch up to God"* The more I ponder this concept, the more I identify with it. The rise of Social Media since the early 21st century (Facebook: 2004, Twitter: 2006, Instagram: 2010, Snapchat: 2011, VSCO: 2011, Discord: 2015, etc.) has sped up our lives. And it's not just social media and apps on 5G Wi-Fi that speed our lives up. On TV,  a shot that cuts to a new viewpoint on television changes every 7-8 seconds on average, according to a Salisbury University study. Even the way TV shows are filmed train our brains to expect our eyes to see things at a greater speed! However, the digital and technology age we live in is not the only aspect of our lives to blame - we organize our daily agenda to fit as much as we can within 24 hours; fast food restaurants, expedited shipping, and Instapot meals also aid us in our desire to go through the experience quicker so we can move on to the next item on our to-do list at the greater speeds than a gazelle being chased through an African Savanna. Downtime is seen as a waste of time, and resting from all of the hustle and bustle is seen as optional in an effort to be productive. In fact, I would go a step further and say the digital and technology companies and apps are as successful as they are because doing things more efficiently has always been a priority for the customer.

"What is efficient is not always effective," Bob Goff, author of his book Dream Big, writes. It's difficult to agree with Bob when the fast food, online shopping, and 5G Wi-Fi gives us every reason to believe our effectiveness has improved because these things make us efficient. However, Bob adds, "Love’s goal isn't ever efficiency; it's presence" - and if anything is eliminated from our agenda with the introduction of these hi-speed additions influencing our decisions, it's presence, because to be present, we have to slow down. How can you properly love the journey if you're constantly trying to find shortcuts? How can you build a proper relationship with those around you if your constantly cutting back on time in order to save it?

When Jesus was just a short time away from his death, he was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" (Mark 14:34). What did he do? He went to be alone for an hour. An hour! My average prayer length is 3 minutes! Even when I'm journaling, meditating, or worshipping in song, I barely crack 20 minutes. If there were any example of slowing down in the Bible, this is it. Going away for an hour just to pray, which was the first thing Jesus said to his disciples before he went off to be alone with God (Mark 14:32), is quite impressive. 

If I were Jesus, I would be creating a to-do list, writing my last blog post, teaching one more writing lesson to my 5th graders, and cleaning the garage for my wife. Maybe I would finally delete all of the store promotion spam e-mails filling up my storage if I have time before the chief priests send people to arrest me. The point is, my go-to habit is to do something, knowing that efficiency is the motivation for doing it. I certainly would find it difficult to fit in 1 hour of prayer!

Most of my life, I have been told to be like Jesus and to read the Gospels to see how Jesus acted. If this is true, which it is**, then Jesus' moment in the garden of Gethsemane should resonate with us and teach us to do what he does to be in the presence of God. 

The world promises us the reward we get from speeding through it is efficiency. If Diggs slowed down and showed patience, he would be rewarded a treat or dinner at 6:25 instead of 6:27. The point is, Jesus knew slowing down his day to meet with God was a gamechanger, because he knew the reward that came with being with God was peace in the midst of chaos. "Abba Father, [Jesus] said. "Everything is possible  for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36). Jesus knew meeting with God was a priority. 

Jesus could have filled that hour with more teaching, healing, hanging out with mom and his other loved ones, and preparing for his death by traveling around and sightseeing. I'm sure no one would have blamed him. Instead he brought himself and his heart before God in the stillness of the garden. 

Do we have this time allotted in each part of our day, or do we fill it with more of our agenda? Do we buy into the lie the world tells us that efficiency is always most effective and to fill your life with activities that are done quickly so you can have spare time to do more? 

In Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, he talks about the reward for knowing Christ, and to him, it far outweighs anything on his agenda. "But whatever gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7-8). In other words, Paul has concluded that he has falling so deeply in love with knowing God that he is willing to purge his agenda, his past idols, and anything that stands between him and God just to walk with him.

This is what Bob Goff and N.T. Wright are talking about. To effectively know Christ Jesus your Lord," efficiency is not effective. "Slowing down to catch up with God" is the most effective and rewarding thing you will ever do with your life. Paul didn't say he wants to fit God into his busy schedule; he considered everything in this world garbage compared to knowing Christ. Garbage!  Therefore, make walking with God a part of everything you do, and that includes building Gethsemane into your day. 

Through seeking your Gethsemane with God, you slow down, and through slowing down, you find yourself knowing your Creator in ways you never thought could be possible. 

As a child, my dad referenced Psalm 46:10-11 a lot, and it is the perfect fit to close out:

"'...Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.'

The Lord Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress."

Are you with him?

*Taken from Rich Villodas' book The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus, pg. 7, chapter 1.

**In John 14:12-14, Jesus told Phillip that those who believe in him will do what he has been doing; in Luke 6:46-49, Jesus compares us to a wise builder if we hear his words and do what he says but he also compares us to a foolish builder if we don't listen to his words and do what he says; in James 1:22-25 we are told if we don't listen to the Word and do what it says, it's as if we look in the mirror and forget our appearance when we leave.