Think of the kittens!

When I first became a Christian, I can't say that much changed in my attitude. I was pretty much the same person I was before, and I still cared about the usual stuff everyone else cared about.

One night, on my way to church, I found a bag with newborn kittens. Someone threw them out into the street. A dog was circling around the bag, trying to get at them and eat them. I scooped up the bag, rescuing the kittens from the dog, but I didn't have anywhere to take them. My family was very poor, and we couldn't take care of the newborn kittens. So I decided I'd bring them to church. My church, I reasoned, had lots of kind, good people, and I was sure that as soon as the pastor would let me make an announcement, someone would step in and decide to take the kittens home.

I came to church with a bag of meowing kittens in my hands, and explained the situation to the pastor. He shook his head and said that the church wasn't an appropriate place for that kind of request. I argued with him, I pleaded with him, trying to change his mind, but he was very firm: I couldn't come in with the kittens. So I spent that evening not in the bible study, but looking for someone who'd take the kittens home and care for them. Eventually, I found someone who took the kittens - phew!.

However, that evening was a defining one for me. I realized that because we were Christians, we didn't really care about the kittens. The animals didn't matter - only God did.

Soon, I learned that many other things didn't matter to us anymore, because we were Christians. Books, new movies, and music didn't matter anymore - only God mattered. Our jobs and our school didn't matter anymore, unless we were studying the Bible, or doing something "Christian". Environment didn't matter anymore, recycling didn't matter, because the world was going to end soon, and I suppose we just assumed we might as well dump the coke bottles and milk containers into the landfills, until the world ended for real. Participating in community or politics didn't matter anymore either - after all, we were Christians, and we concerned ourselves with the really important stuff (like God). Even the really serious issues didn't matter anymore - when a wife was beaten up by her husband, or a husband was beaten up by his wife, it didn't matter, because none of this "worldly" stuff had any significance compared to God. We could walk by the poor people and be convinced that poverty didn't really matter - because we were concerned with what really mattered - God.

However, one can't maintain this "nothing matters" state of mind indefinitely when one looks at the example of Jesus. How did Jesus live? Until he turned 30, Jesus held a job. A regular, ordinary, down-to-earth job. He wasn't a missionary, or a pastor, or a preacher. He was a carpenter. I'm sure many Christians wonder why the Son of God wasted 30 years of his life doing something so uninteresting, and trivial, rather than doing the really important christian stuff. Can you imagine?

Jesus participated in the religious life of his community. He went to synagogues, and the Temple. Not just to teach - but to worship, like one of his people.

Jesus participated in the events of his community - parties, weddings, celebrations. He really lived like one of us. He lived a very real human life.

That is the meaning of incarnation - Son of God coming in the flesh to live a real human life. He didn't just swoop in to do his thing on earth and then depart as soon as possible. He lived a real human life. Incarnation.

And I think we are all called to live incarnationally as well: to live a real human life, just like Jesus did, entering the the world, our community, our neighbourhood.

And Christian faith - or maybe I should say, good faith, should never tell you that because of God, nothing else matters. On the contrary, when you are a Christian, EVERYTHING matters. Because of Jesus Christ, everything has significance.

Doing your best in school, on your job, in life REALLY matters, because you are being and becoming the complete person that God created you to be: intellectually, emotionally, and in every other way. In one of his epistles, Paul addressed the slaves of the first century, who did what was probably the most insignificant and boring job you could imagine. They did whatever nobody else wanted to do. Here's what Paul told them: "Work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you are really serving God." (Ephesians 6:7, THE MESSAGE).

The environment, the natural world around us is God's creation. So if God matters, then his creation must matter too!

Listen to some quotes from Psalm 104:

"God's trees are well-watered, the <...> cedars he planted. Birds build their nests in those trees. Look! the stork at home in the treetop. Mountain goats climb about the cliffs, badgers burrow among the rocks. When it's dark and night takes over, all the forest creatuers come out. When the sun comes up, they vanish. <...> Meanwhile, men and women go out to work, busy at their jobs until evening. What a wildly wonderful world, GOD! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." (THE MESSAGE)

Finally, treating people well, participating in our community, being good friends, and good citizens, good neighbours really matters a great deal when you are a Christian (or at least, it should), because we can't love God while mistreating, neglecting or ignoring people around us.

This world is God's world. Everything in it is meaningful, and faith is never supposed to detract from that. Instead, good faith adds a new level of meaning to everything around us.

The invitation to Christian life isn't an invitation to a life where we walk around thinking that nothing matters except our religion. It's an invitation to a life where everything and everyone is significant. It's an invitation to life infused with meaning, significance, and purpose.

King Solomon describes the invitation to life with God the following way in Proverbs, chapter 9:

Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place, and invites everyone within sound of her voice: "Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on? Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me! Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning." (THE MESSAGE).

Galina Frieed

Comments

[Pat Gundry]

I'm reminded, by your experience with the kittens, of my first disallusionment with church. It was in Corcoran, California, at the Missionary Baptist Church. It was at Vacation Bible School the summer after the sixth grade.

I didn't have a pencil to do something we were supposed to do, and the pastor, Martin Canavan was his name, happened to walk by me. I asked him if he had a pencil I could use, and he said, no he didn't, and walked a few feet away, where, soon, someone else, an adult or teen asked him the same quesiton. He quickly reached in his pocket and pulled a pencil out and handed it to the one requesting.

He had plainly lied to me. This really amazed me. He was the pastor, someone I'd looked up to, someone who preached hell and brimstone sermons about sin and judgment. He had lied to me about a pencil, slick as could be, with no hint of hesitation or remourse.

I realized at that moment that church was not necessarily the pristine moral place I'd thought it to be, and that being in it and of it was no guarantee of morality. Useful lesson.

[TL]

Wonderful inspiring thoughts Galina. I would have taken that bag of kittens, no problemo!

It is a horrific shame that the church is so full of unspiritual and counter spiritual happenings.

And Pat, that must have been such a shock for a young girl to have viewed such blatant bias in a pastor.

[Dorcas]

Oh dear. I would have certainly let you seek a home for the kittens. :-( Probably would have gotten in trouble because I would have taken one or two home, and...Ken is allergic. ;-)

Because of my awe of God...EVERYTHING matters. Compartmentalizing life that way is foolish. God is so much bigger. But it took me a while to realize this, and I am still in the process of prioritizing. Things can't all matter equally...but I am constantly finding myself rearranging priorities these days and looking at things in new ways.

And Pat, your post made me gasp in dismay! Oh, how I wish you had the wisdom and the boldness of your adult self in that instance...man! That pastor deserved to be confronted. How inexplicable.

[Jeannie]

Hey Galina,

You KNOW that I would have taken ALL those little kittens! And what a superficial, shallow view of G-d's creation that pastor had. What a shame. I also think that "the least of these" also could mean animals as well.

I also cannot help but think of the person who "discarded" those poor little kittens (like so much trash) in the first place. Lord knows I would have much to give account for, but I would really hate to have to look Our Lord Jesus in the face and have to give an accounting for that. OTOH, Our Lord would be far more merciful than I would be!

[vasilisa]

Galina, if there were more Christians in this world like you, the world would be a much better place. In my experience it has been rare to find people who look at Jesus for example, and not at Bible interpretations for an excuse to justify their ways.

PS: I can't believe your pastor!

[frangranny]

freedom to disagree? Oh my dear soul, the matter becomes giving others the freedom to disagree...then we are truly loving.

frangranny