Sunday, December 27, 2009

do you have a "kitty"?

Ever have the Lord reveal something to you about yourself you just don't like?
Sometimes he uses unusual things to get our attention.
Recently I just moved. When I did I inherited two outside cats. One is always around, the other comes around here and there.
There was a bag of cat food here when I moved in, so I fed the cat till the food was gone. Then I thought, "Someone else must be feeding them, this place was empty for 3 months".
So, for a few days I didn't feed them. At first I felt kind of guilty about not feeding them, then I just thought about them once in a while.
I saw a bowl outside my neighbors door, so I knew they must be feeding them, that made me feel less "responsible" for them. The part-time kitty was getting food from somewhere, he looks like he weights 15 pounds!
I really LOVE animals, so for me to not feed them for a day is unusual.

When I got home Christmas afternoon, I started to feel really sick. Three days latter, I'm still sick.......the flu!
It has really gotten cold outside today, I had to turn my heat up just a tad.

Laying in bed just an hour ago, praying for my family and friends, the kitty come to my mind. I thought he must be hungry because you need more food when it's cold outside. I couldn't stop thinking about him, so after about five minutes I got up to go check on him.
He is always by the downstairs back door, but I just knew he was going to be by the upstairs back door.
I walked over to my refrigerator, got out all the sliced turkey I had, then walked to the upstairs back door, opened the door and there he sat.He didn't run to the door when I opened it, he was already there.
I gave him the sliced turkey and he ran away with all he could carry, but not to far to come back for more.
I knew the Lord had put the kitty on my heart, but it wasn't just because he was hungry, what was He showing me?
Then I started to think about how we can be so passionate about something and slowly grow cold to it.

for-instance, you don't go from feeding the homeless to walking past them in one day, do you?

Just the same, I didn't get that way with the kitty in just one day.
A few months ago I took a stray kitty in because it was starving to death, and I'm allergic to cats.
Anyway, I got fleas in my house so bad because of taking that kitty in.
So by not feeding the kitty, I was, in my mind, protecting myself from some kind of future harm.

That's how we go from feeding homeless to walking past them on the streets, we think we're protecting ourselves from something.
If I do that with a kitty, what will be next? A person hurt me so I'll stay away from them? A homeless person I gave money to used it to buy beer, so I'm not going to help homeless people anymore? The things that could happen to our sensitivity is countless, and it all started with one little kitty!
I hope I'm never too desensitized to the the world that I can't hear the Lord speak to me about one single kitty.
Maybe your "kitty" is something else, but I think we all have them. What do we ignore that we use to embrace?

Monday, December 7, 2009

What will you be known by?

Is there something you just love to watch? My "thing" is watching the snow fall.
I don't mean just sitting and looking at it, I mean standing out in the open with my eyes reaching for the heavens. There is something so warming watching it fall.
This morning, before 6am, I was standing with my head toward the heavens watching the beautiful white snow fall against the still night sky. Breathtaking.
Latter on in the morning, the snow was gone just as fast as it had came.It had melted and I could see the green grass once again.
Looking around at all the beautiful green grass, I noticed some patches of snow that hadn't melted yet. No shade or anything was keeping it cooler than the grassy areas, so why hadn't these "patches" melted?
I was so excited with what the Lord showed me in the remaining snow!
Every single area that still had snow was barren, no life whatsoever. Piles of dirt with snow on top.
The green grassy areas had absorbed the moister gently resting on top of it.
God will always give us what we need to grow, but if our life is "barren" we wont recognize the spirit "gently resting on top" waiting to be invited in.

Matthew 7:20
20"So then, you will know them by their fruits.