Audacity

We found cats. A lot of them. Stray kittens. Yes, incredibly cute.

Mollie calls me. She loves cats. In her lifetime she’s had about twenty of them… give or take a couple. Of her last two cats, one was given away and the other, a 14/15 year old cat, just passed. So no more cats. So her dad promised her new kittens. Mollie saw these stray kittens as her opportunity.
So she calls me. “WIN! I found stray kittens. You have to come help me get them!” I was on my way to sell text books back. I tell her this, and that I have a duffel bag full of books. I tell her that after I sell my books I’ll come see what I can do.
“HURRY!” she pleads. I tell her I will.
Three minutes later she calls me again. “Win where are you!?”
“I’m still walking to sell my books back, it’s only been three minutes.”

Five minutes later she calls again. She calls me every five minutes for the next half hour, until I finally get there, empty duffel in hand.
The kittens are in the middle of a garden, hiding under a storm drain. They are scared to death, and mother is no where to be seen. We talk about it for a while. Is this okay? What about the mom? Are we bad people? Eventually we decide to just go for it. It took a while. We had encouragement from older, wiser men and women. 
We eventually caught one. She’s a black tabby with a white face and white paws. Probably four or five weeks old. Yes, incredibly cute. We named her Sylvia. . . I think after Sylvia Plath.
We found the assistance of some Air Force ROTC staff and they helped us get a couple more. A yellow tabby, Simon, and a black and yellow calico, Snickers. Both were also about four or five weeks.
So we took them to our friends’ apartment. They were real cool about it. Mollie was going back to Richmond the next day, and just needed a place to keep the kittens for the night. So Kyle, Nick, and Will took them. Thanks guys. You’re brave souls.

Now I know I’ve talked some about God’s patience in his pursuit of of us in a previous post. But that’s not the only important aspect of his pursuit. Let’s talk about his audacity. 

I feel that sometimes I don’t quite have the “drive” to finish things. What you are reading right now, for instance, I began writing about two weeks ago. I just picked it back up at the words “I feel.”
It’s amazing, to me, to think that God does not stop pursuing and caring for us. Not just me. Not just you. But each and every one of us. All six billion plus people on Earth. I’m certain that if Mollie had been able to she would have taken every kitten, and their mother home with her to Richmond.
I think that God’s pursuit of us has this same audacity, on an even greater scale. Mollie was ready and willing to climb down into a storm drain to rescue these kittens. God sent his only son to become human and die a torturous death on a cross in order to rescue the world from its brokenness. 
This love is incredible to me, and so much bigger than I am.

I just finished reading Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, and started reading his Through Painted Deserts. A common theme I’ve noticed so far is the idea that there is definitely something greater than he – or I, or you, or anybody else – is. This is comforting thought to me because if there is nothing bigger or greater than I am, then there is absolutely no hope for me. 
But there is hope for me, because God is bigger and greater than I am. And he’s pursuing the heck out me. And out of you. And out of everyone else on the planet, whether they know it or not. He’s been pursuing us since we walked away from him at the fall of man. 
And he’s audacious about it. He’s extreme. The pastor at my church in Raleigh says frequently that we, as humans, cannot put God in a box. Some Christians say “God works like this.” Others say “God doesn’t work like this.” But the book of Psalms says that God does whatever he wants to. Because of this, my church in Raleigh believes that God can work in anyway he wants to. And I think that he does, which is why I say that he is extreme in his audacity. 
I see this frequently in my own life, where God uses the things I surround myself with to teach and guide me. Sometimes he makes it hard, to get my attention. Then, once he has my attention, he teaches me out of hardship and introduces me to great blessings. He answers prayers and brings things home. And brings me home.
In these situations, I really get to see God. He pursues me and catches me, and it’s beautiful.

It’s a goal of mine to able to pursue people as well as God does. That’s a big goal, I know. But it would be great, wouldn’t it. It’s definitely something I long to strive for. Even to be able to pursue people as well as Mollie pursued those cats. She pursues people that well, too. It’s encouraging.

Mollie kept two of the cats. Sylvia and Simon. She gave Snickers to this lady who helped us when we found them. Kyle thinks the lady ate Snickers, but I won’t tell you why.

 

Ready for the Storm

I walked in. It wasn’t exactly what I would call “a dark and stormy night,” in fact, it was an early spring evening, the sun relatively high in the sky. It was, however, mostly hidden by dark thunderheads that were heaving a heavy drizzle of rain into the city.

Therefore walking in was nice. There wasn’t much of a temperature change inside the building, but it was significantly more comfortable. The storm was coming, but we were safe inside, for now.

This is significant because the storm of that Sunday was so symbolic of the current events in my personal life. It was stormy, with a heavy drizzle of rain that followed me around.  At the time I had no idea that walking through the door of this building would shelter me not only from the physical storm outside, but also from the proverbial rain inside my heart.

I would love to tell you that the things causing turmoil in my life were intense spiritual and societal problems. Unfortunately, they were a bit more cliche than that. Some might call even call it shallow, but I believe that if it were shallow it would not be causing the ruckus that it was. 

The parallel between the storms of that day (the physical and the emotional) was not something I immediately realized. In fact, it wasn’t until about twenty minutes later that I heard my pastor pray “Thank you for bringing us in out of the storm,” or something along those lines. At this point I realized how significant the storm was outside. It would be something that God would do. He loves symbolism, I believe.

This church service was not just a church service. It was a shelter. 

 

The storm obviously ended. The one outside I mean. The weather, however, is still not perfect. It’s been a couple days, and it’s still raining off and on. The sun comes in and out, too. 

Similarly, I’m still dealing with the same internal issues. I have fears about them, and they keep me up at night. But I feel protected and encouraged. I’m given hope and faith daily that the storm will indeed pass. As the sun reminds us that the rain is not eternal, the Word so reminds us that our fears are also not eternal. In the same way that the Lord will roll away the clouds, he will also roll away that which causes pain in our life.

 

I think it is also worth noting that this physical rain is relieving the city of the drought we have been experiencing these last few months. Although it can be miserable, it is fixing a problem. Once this problem has been satisfied, the rain will leave.

 

Lastly, I believe that the most beautiful part of this this analogy is that the Lord in Heaven creates and controls both present storms. The creator of the weather, of the North and the South, of the warmth and cold, is the same creator of Joy.