Mon., Mar. 28/22
When the cat gets the remote you know you’re in for some tedious TV.
The sorts of shows the cat likes are seldom detective dramas, rarely cooking shows, never sitcoms, newscasts, or game shows. The sorts of shows cats watch may be nature footage of birds, mice, or snakes, cat food commercials, fireplace and aquarium stations, and mesmerizing psychedelics on rock station videos.
When the cat gets the remote you just have to wait it out. Oh, you could force it from her, but for her glare. Her glare tells you she has claws and you don’t. It reminds you how loudly she can meow drowning out your reality show, and that there’s that plant she knows to munch on to produce disgusting things for you to clean up! Yes, the shortest distance to the remote is to wait it out.
Many things in life are best dealt with by “waiting them out.” From a hard boiled egg to “the fullness of the time” (Gal. 4:4, kjv) many things take as long as they take and none shorter.
Life often asks us to wait: we wait on phones, we wait in lines, we wait on others, on mail, on traffic and on appointment dates – we even build entire rooms in which to wait!
There’s a real lesson to be learned in waiting things out. In waiting we discover very quickly our own impatience, whether or not we too may have unknowingly entered the “rat race” and if so our positioning in it and our zeal to finish it. Waiting forces us to “be still” – a skill we have been commanded to practice (Ps. 4:4; 46:10) and necessary if we truly wish to know God.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,” wrote Jeremiah (Lam. 3:25 ESV). “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” chimed David (Ps. 27:14 ESV). And Isaiah reminds, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isa. 40:31 ESV).
If ever Jesus made a single most irreducible statement of what we are to do in this world it would be this: “Abide in Me.” (John 15:4). Abide, i.e. Remain in Me, He says, just be still… be in Me… and stay there. Then “you will bear much fruit.” It is important to learn the discipline of waiting.
Well, that’s a pretty good lesson from a sassy cat. I guess we’ll keep her.
Press on…
Pressing on... 