The Cat

The other week I talked about fishing so this week it’s only natural that I talk about…… Cats!
Seriously…. Cats!

These thoughts came to me as I was going through my regular morning routine. Part of this routine involves giving one of our two cats a shot and then feeding them. That’s right, you heard me correctly, you are not crazy, I’m the crazy one but…. I have to give one of our cats a shot every morning. Actually, I also have to give him one shot every evening as well. You see… one of our cats has diabetes.

One evening a couple years ago, this skinny and malnourished, gray cat is walking around on our back deck. He looked absolutely pitiful, nothing but skin and bones and meowing very loudly. I have no clue how he got there but I suspect that he had heard through the grapevine that our home had a habit of taking in strays. Many would expect my wife to be the one to take him in and take care of him but as it turns out… I was the first one to feed him. This is a fact that my wife is quick to not let me forget. I couldn’t help it… he was dying. I truly believe to this day that if I had not feed that cat, he would have died shortly after showing up on our doorstep. We were his last hope. The truth is that I have a very large soft spot for animals. Probably a lot softer than I’ll ever let any of you know (hopefully). I once re-filled a mud puddle with water when it began to dry up during the summer because some tadpoles had chosen to make it their home. Anyway, that is a story for another time… back to the cat. Our relationship with “Mots” (mouth of the south) began with that first feeding. It wasn’t long until he was a regular visitor on our back deck. Then, one night after a loud ruckus, we discovered Mots on the back deck with several puncture wounds all over his body including a real nasty cut over his eye. To make a long story short, after many trips to the vet, two extended stays in the vet facility, a bout with pneumonia and an increasingly large amount of vet bills… we discovered that Mots, along with everything else, had diabetes. I’ll never forget that phone call from my lovely, sobbing wife telling me I had two choices. Two shots of insulin, also know as liquid gold, every day for the rest of his life or….

Well, here we are a couple years later and I’m giving Mots his morning shot, and it strikes me how much his relationship with us is like our relationship with Christ. We took him in when nobody else would. We fed him and took care of him. We gave him the attention and love that he needed to get well and over time his wounds began to heal. Now he enjoys a very comfortable, peaceful and mostly serene life. He still has the diabetes and as far as we know, there is no cure for diabetes in animals. There is the slim hope that one day he may come to not need the insulin anymore.

I think back to the many years when I lived outside of Christ. It seems that life was just one continuous struggle just to get through to the next day. There were moments of happiness and sometimes lots of fun but there was always something missing. There were many wounds, some still open and fresh and others that had grown scar tissue, hardening everything around them so that nothing could ever again get close enough to hurt again. There were many people and different moments in my life that added up to that one moment when every worldly thing I had held onto was stripped away and I surrendered myself to the love of Christ. One of the first things I discovered about God’s love was acceptance. Christ accepted me just as I was. I didn’t have to dress up or be someone I was not and He loved me anyway. In His arms, I found a happiness and a peace that made everyday seem like a wonderful journey instead of a struggle. I began to discover that not only did Jesus want to heal my wounds but he would also comfort me whenever I was wounded. Christ also didn’t just heal those old wounds that I had held onto but he could soften those old scars so that now they have become a beautiful part of who I am.

While those wounds have been healed, I still have a disease within me that many call our sin nature. I still require a couple shots a day… sometimes more to keep this sickness away. While Mots requires insulin shots to combat his sickness, I require the Word of God to stay healthy and at far larger doses than the insulin Mots receives. Mots also has to depend on his relationship with us to get the medicine the he needs to sustain him. I (we) also need to rely on Jesus Christ to sustain us. It is through our relationship with Him that we are able to combat this sickness and gain victory over eternal death. Through His Victory, there is the certainty that one day… I won’t have to endure this sickness anymore.

Romans 7:17-25 (The Message)

17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21-23It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.