manure on the road...

The town I live in has a lot of manure.  You have to watch your step when you're crossing the street or getting out of your car in a parking lot. We have a lot of mennonites in our town, who travel around in buggies pulled by horses.  The stoop and scoop law doesn't seem to apply to them.
One morning, I was at a garage sale in a neighboring town, in an area of grand houses with creative landscaping, and wide streets.  A horse and buggy pulled up, and a woman in a black dress jumped out. This was a subdivision far enough removed from the mennonite settlements, that a horse and buggy was an odd sight.  The owners of the home, and a few neighbours stared and talked excitedly about the horses, and stood watching them, until the horse decided to do his business in quite a large pile, right in front of their beautiful stamped concrete driveway.  
The mennonite lady was getting back in to her buggy, and horrified, the home owner chased after her :"Wait! Aren't you going to clean that up?" She gestured wildly at the manure in front of her house.
The mennonite lady gave her a strange look and laughed, "With what?"
"Dont you have a shovel?"
"No", she said, pulling her buggy away, and leaving the large mess behind.
The home owner and her neighbours were frantic.
"She is just going to leave that mess there?!" How incredible! How rude! How could she do that?"
They stood staring at the pile of manure.
"Oh! Disgusting!" "Its so stinky!" "What should we do with it?" How can we clean this up!?!?"
They discussed a few options, and one woman ran and got a shovel.  With loud exclamations of disgust, they carried it in a few trips, to the back corner behind one of the houses.

Sometimes people focus so much on sin, glare at it in disgust, try to figure out ways to get that sin out of their lives, and how it got there in the first place.    The sin becomes the big deal, and it seems to grow more and more out of control.  When we take our focus off of the sin, and look to God, He takes care of it. Its not up to us to defeat sin. Its up to us to focus on Jesus, surrender to His life in us, and let Him do the work that He wants to inside of us.

The funny thing, is that it poured rain later that day, and if the women would have left the pile of manure, it would have easily washed away.    Now they've got a big smelly pile in their own back yard!

the annoying cat

My son has a grey and white cat that seems to exist to annoy me. If I'm folding laundry, he jumps on the pile. If I'm working on the computer, he's up on the keyboard.  Hunting for something in a cupboard, he is right there, knocking everything over.  All day he follows me around the house, and if I leave, I have to be careful or he'll follow me down the street. There have been times I've been downtown, turned around and there was that cat following me again! Do you know how embarrasing it is to try to carry a snarling cat back home again?   Of course, when I complain to my son, the cat gets hugged, and I'm told that I'm just being mean.
There was a skit we used to do, that reminds me of that cat.   A student stood on stage with someone playing the charactre of Jesus.  They would interact with Jesus through the day, talking to him often. But then came some friends, inviting him to a party. Jesus started to follow him too, but they turned and ordered him to stay home. Jesus continued to follow, no matter how great the person demanded him to stay home.  Eventually, Jesus was dragged back into the house, where He was symbolically "nailed" by his hands and feet to make him stay.  
It was a point taken strongly by the students watching - that Jesus wants to be with you always, but that its your own choice where you take Him.

But that little skit had it ALL wrong!  Jesus doesn't walk beside you, acting as a friend who will hang out with you as you do all the "right" things, and then stay away from you when you are doing something He would not "approve" of.
Not at all.   Jesus lives IN you.  Colossians 1:27 says:  "And the mystery is that Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God's glory."   He lives IN you and is with you, around you, being your very life.     Its not possible to remove Him for a time, so that you can go off without Him.  He is with you through every instant of your life.
I'm very glad to know this truth about God, and I'm very glad too, that it doesn't work the same with that cat!