back to the cats...

A few days ago I wrote a post that included a story of our indoor/outdoor cats. We currently have 5 outdoor farm cats (none of which will let us get close to them and two that look pregnant). I mentioned how we have seen farm cats kind of come and go at our place and how it's easier to detach from any kind of compassionate response to them.....well, that is, until the suffering gets in your face. Yesterday evening, we noticed one of the farmies was meowing under our deck, and when she came out from under, it looks like she'd had some kind of trauma. The end of her tail looks flattened, and she had a scabby mouth area with drool? continuing to drip down from her chin. We had set some food out, but she doesn't seem interested in that, and she's continuing to meow in distress. We had an early morning appointment this morning, but as soon as we get home, Sara and I are going to bait a trap and try to get her into the cage so that we can take her to a shelter.

It's hard to ignore suffering when it's in your face....when it becomes personal. Stearns talks about that in his book The Hole in our Gospel. So often, we try to stay at a safe distance from pain, poverty, suffering. We do this for lots of reasons....because who actually wants to look for and join in suffering? We don't want suffering to disrupt our comfort or mess with our agenda... and we often don't know what to do or say in the midst of suffering.

And so we go....until we have a personal encounter. Until we meet someone, and we realize they have a name, a family, a story. Our heart then engages, and we can better see who God is, who this person is, and who we are. And we are changed. Our hearts break. Our hearts grow. In Philippians, Paul writes.."I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings..." We are called into the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. It is in this fellowship where we are challenged, changed, where God grows our compassion. Most who suffer will not come to us where we are and lay under our decks. Therefore, I know that I must intentionally take some steps to go find the face of suffering and join in that fellowship where I will most likely find a personal encounter not only with a person, but with Christ.