Our church has this thing called "Villages," which is just a fancy name for small groups ... everyone is required to start at a "Discovery Village" to learn how it works and get to know some of your church-going neighbors.
Part of the Discovery Village – I love the concept, but the name ... oy vey – is sharing your "story" with others in the group. It's a great idea, because you not only learn about other people and their walks with God, but you learn about yourself by distilling your life story into 15 minutes.
I told mine last night, and it was about as straightforward and non-dramatic as you would imagine, but in preparation for telling it, I was feeling kind of bad – stories I'd heard up to that point involved much more sturm und drang than mine: I grew up in a strong, Baptist household, my faith has always been there, God has provided above and beyond for me and my family ... it's kind of ho-hum, in a way. There have been challenges, and I've no doubt much harder ones are coming my way – nobody gets away with an easy life – but compared to my Christian brothers and sisters, mine has been a smooth theological road so far.
I was thinking of Abraham and what God put him through ... of course, I always think of it in Bob Dylan language:
God: Kill me a son.
Abe: Man, you must be putting me on!
God: No.
Abe: What?
God: You can do what you want Abe, but next time you see me coming, you'd better run ...
Anyway, all this is a long way of saying that God tested me in my sleep last night, in the form of a very overweight cat deciding to camp out on my shoulder while declaring how happy he was to have found me in this strange bed – I'd slept in the guestroom last night – by purring and meowing and doing that kneading-dough things with his paws.
Does "thou shalt not kill" apply to cats? I need a theology ruling here.
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