Unshackled Moments ~ October 26, 2018 ~ My Stupid Cat

Leah and I have no central heat and air as the unit needs to be repaired (hopefully) or replaced. We can't afford either, so we have done without for most of the year. We have an electric fireplace in the bedroom that we use to keep from freezing now that the temperatures have dropped and have had to run it about half of the last dozen or so nights.

This evening, as I left the bedroom for the study to do my evening meditations, review my day and write this Moment for tomorrow, I saw the cat sitting on the top of the heater. She began  to do this often about the same time that we began running it. The wood doesn't get hot, but it does stay warm when the unit is on, and I don't blame her for taking advantage of the ledge to warm herself on these cool days. Except the heater isn't on. We haven't had it on at all today, so the surface is not warm. The room is cool, but not uncomfortably so, and the temperature won't drop lower tonight than it will take an extra blanket on the bed to keep my wife and I warm. So, save the electricity and leave the heater off. But the cat perched upon it with a look on her face like, "Why isn't this working?"

Stupid cat. That's a quote by the way. That's what I said when I saw her.But upon further reflection, she isn't any more stupid than I am. I have done this many times, and I know a lot of other people who have as well. In fact, it's common. No, I'm not referring to sitting on heaters that aren't working expecting to be warmed, but something similar.

We all have spiritual needs that must be filled in order to be healthy in other areas of life. When we become aware of the increasing cold in the God-shaped void, we try to fill it with something that will make us warm, that will make us feel the ache less or satisfy the need, at least temporarily.There are almost as many different ways and combination of ways to try to fill that emptiness as there are people. And some of them work, at least a little, at least for a while. Until they don't.

That's when  we begin acting like my stupid cat. We believe, as shown by our actions, that if we do more of, or keep trying, or sit in that situation longer, what once worked but no longer does will suddenly start working again. If you're a drunk and  a druggie like me, long after the destruction and misery of a life ruled by chemicals far outweighs the benefits, even the imagined ones, you will continue to return to  that well. This time will be different. This time will be like it once was.

Maybe you can't relate to that. Maybe chemicals aren't your answer. But we all have one. Maybe more than one. Something we turn to in order to answer the need. Something with which we try to fill the emptiness. Something we look to give us warmth, comfort, safety, joy, life besides the One created us with that space that only He can fill. He didn't do it to leave us hanging and unsatisfied. He did it because we were created for relationship with Him. He loves us as we are, not as we should be, and His greatest desire is for us to turn to Him to meet that need for life. He longs to be our salvation now. Not to  give us a ticket to heaven somewhere down the road, but to be our source of a life worth living, that warmth that brings contentment even as life grows cold and harsh at this moment, on this  side of eternity.

Let us not be like a cat who tries to get warmth from a heater that isn't producing heat. Let us not look for life in people, places, situations and things that can not provide it.  Instead, let us be quick to turn to our Daddy and let Him fill our lives.


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