This week my cat has driven me absolutely up the wall. You see, every so often he gets this urge to out there and be a male cat and he disappears for a day or two and comes back with scratches and injuries. Once it was so bad I had to take him to the vet and he was cleaned up and prescribed for the cone of shame... hahahaha he looked so dumb in a cone! Anyway, I digress....
This week seems to be mating season and he was driven out by his natural instincts. For four days we didn't see him, but he was running around all over the estate and beyond trying to find a mate. My mum and I were worried sick about him and when we did finally see him, he was no longer this docile, and slightly cowardly cat we know. It was 6 a.m. on Thursday morning when I was woken by his noisy and very loud meowling (mix between a meow and howl; that annoying call they make in mating season). Any attempts at bringing him home were first ignored, then met with anger and a desperate attempt to escape. When he finally did come home yesterday, after five days of not eating, he was haggard and starving. He quickly finished the food on his bowl and begged for more. He finished an entire glass of milk and seemed to be so tired that he could barely sit. We didn't recognise this thin, tired, confused animal. You could see he wanted to sleep in a bit, but he was soon out of the door again, meowling at his (maybe inexistent) girlfriend. Before he left, he sat on our kitchen floor looking exhausted and spent. My mum was very sorry for him, but she was also upset with him because the previous morning when I'd tried to bring him home he had acted like a wild cat. I remember telling her that it wasn't his fault. It was his natural instinct driving him. My poor sweet, calm, slightly cowardly Sakura is forced to go out and be what he is, an animal, a slave to natural instincts.
As soon as I said it, it hit me. Suddenly all those verses about us being slaves to nature came flooding my mind. We are all like Sakura. We get these natural instincts to go and do something, often sinful, and because we put so much power in our feelings, we follow these instincts and spend our energy fulfilling our body's desires. Pride, loneliness, greed, depression, fear, anxiety, sadness, hurt, anger, you name it; these feelings come into our lives and suddenly we are working on autopilot. They drive us out of the comfort of the Maker's presence as we go on a bender. It doesn't matter if the Father calls out to us morning and night. It is not until we are desperately tired, spiritually starved and bruised, that we go stalking back home. The Master sees us and comes running and calling out for us. He meets us outside, tuts and croons at us as He carries us home. At home He feeds us and dresses our wounds as we gripe and bite at Him as He cleans our sores. We slowly begin to regain strength and spend our days in His presence being nourished until we are growing on the inside. We tell ourselves, 'Never again!' and soon that phase of our lives is forgotten as our wounds heal and scars fade. Then one day some other feeling comes up and the desires are so strong and real that we are convinced that surely, even God who made me and those desires must want me to respond to them. So, out we go again, into the night to meowl and chase after temporary pleasures that will leave us bruised, or in some cases, eventually kill us....
It doesn't have to be that way because on the cross Jesus defeated the things of the world and freed us from that slavery. We do not have to put so much weight on our feelings. We do not have to respond to every single natural instinct just because it is natural . Everyone has that one weakness; that one desire that they give in to that drives them from the presence of God. That thing that keeps them away from God later on even though they are hurting. The good news is that Jesus has overcome the world and that includes our human nature. We are all like Sakura, but we don't all have to act like Sakura. In 1 Corinth 9 Paul talks about how he disciplines his body into submission. That is the way it is. We may no longer be slaves, but we first have to change those habits we created before we gave our lives over in submission to God. It is a daily decision to do what is right, a daily struggle to fight those desires, but by God's transforming Grace, it begins to become less hard. Instead of what Paul describes in Romans 7:15, over time we find that we no longer struggle to do that which we want to do. We slowly find it easier to not do what we don't want to do. God transform us from the inside until the human nature is less and that work is finally completed in Heaven. However, our role in God's transformation process, is to actively choose to fight our human nature and discipline our bodies. We don't get to sit back and let God do all the work. Our role can be hard, but God provides the Holy Spirit to give us the courage and strength to do it everyday. God's grace is like leeway to make mistakes so even when we do give in and go all 'Sakura', He welcome us back and cares for us. It is an amazing process really, one that requires hard work, but is ultimately rewarding in that it allows us to make room for God to be Lord in our lives through constant submission to His will instead of our natural instincts. What's even better is finding out each time that His way and His will are more than just superior to ours; His will is more amazing than we could have imagined and leaves us better off than we were before, Isn't that just wonderful? When we surrender ourselves fully to God instead of to our human nature, we open ourselves to being used by God in such amazing ways that it constantly leaves us in awe.
Next time you get this natural instinct, take a pause and tell yourself, 'Don't be like Sakura.'
PS, this blog was not just another excuse to talk about my cat..... or was it? muahahahahahaha..... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment