I've been driving back and forth to Hot Springs for the past two weeks and every single time I get off the I-30 to get on the 270 I see a dead cat lying on the road. It's not a different cat every single time, instead it is indeed the same cat. When I first saw it, I began to have sympathy for the poor thing. I've made the trip a total of 5 times... It's still there.
Today was a little different than most days, I really thought long and hard about this cat. What was it's story? One might assume that it ran away from home and got hit by traffic, but if that was the case, wouldn't the family be restless from searching for this cat? Now, let's play the worst case scenario game. What if this said family saw their dead cat on the side of the road and instead of retrieving it and having a proper burial at home, they left it there. They wanted nothing to do with it. It's dead, gross, disgusting!
How many of you have experienced that? Being on either the receiving end or the giving end. Let's pretend you're the giver. You have a friend that is going through so much and you see that they really need help and proper "burial" of their issues and problems. You notice that they are practically lifeless, why be the one to take the time out of your day and your precious time to help them? It's not that you don't want to help, but you know that there are plenty of people out there that are hired to deal with them. Preachers, teachers and even counselors; you can't put that load on yourself... No way. You begin to see that there is a problem with your logic. If you leave them on the side of the road, it's only going to cause them more pain, so you justify your thoughts and find a reason to be angry at them. It's the only way that you can separate yourself from them.
Next scenario: The receiver. Your life isn't getting any better and you're waiting for a miracle. You look hard for people that you can talk to, but there's no such luck. At first you were searching for people that you could trust, but now you're desperate. You'll talk to anyone. The people that you start to talk to feel sympathy for you at first, but then they begin to drive by just like everyone else. You don't have anything else left in you. Your problems ended up burying you in such a way that everyone else can see it.
How is it that this cat on the side of the road made me think of all of this? Maybe because the story sounds all too familiar. I didn't want to pick up that cat because it wasn't my job... that's for the animal pooper scooper... not me.... right? If you take that sentence on a non-literal way it would sound like this: "I didn't want to help that smelly person who needed some groceries because it wasn't my job... shouldn't churches be doing that?"
The fact of the matter is this: When we decide to follow God, we BECOME the church. Why is it that when we see a person in need we start labeling the church as a business instead of the "bride of Christ?" We only call ourselves "the church" when we purposely go out and do something good. Shouldn't we be doing good everyday?
What's your dead cat on the side of the road?
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