"Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here."~Marianne Williamson
Cats and Fear
Cultures
I know this may sound cold and unloving, but I am not a "pet" person. I love animals, I just don't care to have critters living in my house. The fact that I have two cats says something about the democracy within our house.
If a cat is sitting in my office chair it usually knows to jump down when I come in. This is because I have chased it off my chair about a million times. The cat knows it's not supposed to sit there when I'm home but feels free to sit there when I'm
gone.
The cats experience with my wife and kids is completely different. With them the cats are always cherished, adored and met with
compassion.
The difference is that my kids are completely accepting of the cats limitations, while I'm foolishly convinced the cat is doing it to spite
me.
This reminded me of when I was a church leader. I used to run people off too. We used the bible to teach people hundreds of ways to be afraid of God. And if they wouldn't fear
God, then they would need to fear the church leadership. The system ran on fear and duty.
About four years ago, something
changed.
Compassion moved in. I could no longer teach people to live in fear. Yes, I'm aware of the texts to work out salvation with fear and trembling, but the
byproduct of that view is a bi-polar faith.
I no longer live afraid of genocidal Jesus, though many still stuck in fear cultures do.
Religious law and commandments create fear and behavior modification programs.
The love of God creates peace and transformation based on new
motivations.
The writer of Hebrews tells us the former commandments are weak and useless, because we now have a new way of drawing near to God-through his peace and compassion.
As it is with cats, so it is with us and God. My cats draw near to the compassion & steer clear of commandments.
I know for those in fear cultures this sounds too easy or too soft. This is because their concept of God is the one who chases us off the chair, instead of the one who greets us with warm arms of compassion.
