cats

The List

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A friend challenged me with something. She told me to think of all the things I’m thankful for, to focus on what’s good about me, and to celebrate the victories. So here’s a list of what I’m thankful for.

1. Grace. Still.

2. Cool spring nights where I can drive home with the windows down and good music playing loud.

3. Friends who speak the truth to me in love when I need to hear it and stick around after I’ve made a mess of things.

4. That messing up doesn’t have to mean the end of the world (or the end of a friendship).

5. That the best days of my life are still ahead.

6. That my past doesn’t define me anymore.

7. That God’s love for me is what defines me now.

8. For the continuing opportunity to be a part of serving as a greeter for Kairos and getting to witness God at work every single week.

9. Who I’m becoming in Christ.

10. That I’m finally able to believe that I will be a good husband and father one day.

11. my iPhone and that I finally got smart enough to get a smart phone. About dang time!

12. That I woke up this morning with good health and everything I need.

13. That I’m able to type this.

14. That God never ceases to amaze or surprise or delight me whenever I have enough sense to pay attention.

15. For people who choose to see the best in me and always give me the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming and jumping to conclusions.

16. For how God speaks in so many ways to me and always knows where I am.

17. For chocolate.

18. For my cat who’s sleeping in my lap as I type up this list.

19. For every soldier who sacrificed his life so that I could have all the freedoms that I so often take for granted.

20. For me finding my own brand of awesome and living it out every day.

Angry Birds, Fruit Ninjas, and Talking Tom Cats

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angrybirds

I have discovered the world of iPhone apps and may have gone a little overboard. Among my most recent discoveries were Fruit Ninjas and Angry Birds.

I can deal with Fruit Ninjas. It’s an easy concept that doesn’t require too much brain activity. Slicing fruit with a ninja sward? It’s a simple yet brilliant concept that kinda has me jonesing for a fruit smoothie right about now. Angry birds is another story.

Let’s just say that when you play the latter game, you feel like giving them the bird in more ways than just catapulting the little feathered fiends toward their little piggy targets. And boys howdy, those are some mean-lookin’ pigs.

Fruit-Ninja-Update

I think it’s time to take a step back and not get carried away about a game where you catapult birds at pigs. So what if the game is rigged? It’s still not worth losing sleep over. The world won’t end because that one little piggy is left standing.

That’s where the Talking Tom app comes in. It’s my favorite. All you do is say something and the little tom cat repeats it. You can even rub his belly and make him purr. Or buy him hats and t-shirts. It’s really up to you.

talkingtomcat

As much as I love new technology (or at least new-to-me technology), it’s helpful to keep it in proper perspective. People still come first. When social media trumps personal interaction, there’s a problem. I’ll still take face-to-face conversations over texting any day. Even over skyping.

And there’s still the little matter of manners. As old-fashioned and antiquated as that sounds, manners still count even when it comes to social media. It’s simply being considerate and treating others how you would like to be treated, regardless of what medium you’re using.

So put down that phone and talk to the person you’re with. That text can wait, but that person won’t always be there.

 

 

Thanks for the Birthday Wishes

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Since I gave up facebook for lent (or took a sabbatical, if you will), I thought I’d use this forum to express my sincere thanks and gratitude for all the posts wishing me a happy birthday.

My response goes like this: Thank you. Yes, it has been a great birthday. Yes, I’d like that Starbucks. I like the idea of an extended birthday celebration, since February is the shortest month, so I will keep partying right on into March.

I’m feeling the facebook love. I know that ultimately the only approval that matters is from God, but it’s still nice to know that I am appreciated by so many people from so many different parts of my life.

So, for all of you who are just dying to know what I did today, here goes. It was a low-key day. My parents took me to Miller’s Grocery in Christiana, a fantastic meat and three restaurant that everyone within 50 miles of Nashville should check out. I watched It Happenend One Night, an old Frank Capra movie that was the first to win Oscars in every major category. I had quality therapy time with my cat Lucy, who deemed my lap worthy of her presence and her nap time.

Tomorrow, I’m volunteering at the Youth Evangelism Conference. I served last year and had a lot of fun, plus I came to one of these conferences as a youth way back in 1897. I look at this weekend as paying it forward to the next generation of youth.

I’ll be back on facebook after Easter, but I wanted to make sure that my gratitude didn’t go unexpressed. I am eternally grateful to every single one of my facebook friends, even to the ones who didn’t get around to wishing me a happy birthday. You all rock.

 

What Everyone Needs

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This is absolutely not about why everyone needs to vote Republican or Democrat. This is not about why everyone needs to support this or that cause or agenda. This isn’t that grand.

1) Everyone at some point during the day needs a hug. Just a simple reminder that someone out there knows who you are, where you are, and what you’re going through and says, “You’re not alone in this.”

2) Everyone needs a cat or a dog (or some other form of pet) to always be nearby and have that constant look of expectation. You may have treated them like garbage and still they will crawl up in your lap and settle down for a long nap. I don’t know about you, but I feel much better about myself when my cat does that.

3) Everyone needs to find at least one small victory during the day and celebrate it. Even if it’s the act of getting out of bed in the morning. Or not managing to trip over anything and fall down for 24 hours straight. You could be living through the most horrific day and if you find that one small victory, it won’t seem as bad.

4) Everyone needs to hear at least once a day that God still loves them. No matter what you’ve done or how long it’s been since you even thought about God, much less spoke to him, God loves you. He is still very fond of you and still wants you to know that.

5) Everyone needs to do at least one thing that’s not on their day planner or to-do list. Go take a walk in the park or sit on a bench and watch people. Take five minutes and do nothing more than breathe in and out slowly, taking in the love of God and exhaling fear and doubt.

Those are a few things I think everyone needs. See that wasn’t painfully political or overly preachy now, was it?

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring, The Old Cat is Snoring

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Photo093_e1

I found out a few weeks ago that my cat, Lucy the Wonder Kitty, snores.

I rolled over to make sure it wasn’t me and found her snoozing soundly and, yes, snoring quite loudly for something so small and cuddly.

She doesn’t snore every night, or maybe if she does I’m too deep in REM sleep to notice, but she does snore.

By the way, she is still working on the record for longest nap ever taken. I think one day she will break it if she can ever get to a quiet and undisturbed place where she can not have stupid humans poking her every few minutes to see if she’s snoring.

What Lucy Did for Black Friday

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This is what Lucy did all day for Black Friday. Maybe not in this spot or in this exact position, but you get the idea. She took one mega-marathon nap.

She avoided the early crowds and the traffic. She stayed away from the madness. And she didn’t miss a thing (or at least that’s the impression I got from the serene look on her face).

Maybe cats (and dogs) are smarter than people after all.

PS For more exciting adventures of Lucy (or more realistically to see more photos of her sleeping, go to (and like) https://www.facebook.com/LucyTheWonderCat

Updates on Lucy

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Lucy is my cat. Or I guess it’s more fitting to say that I’m her person.

Either way, she will turn 13 next year, which makes her a teenager.

She’s already got that part down. She never listens to me when I talk to her and most of the time when I try to tell her anything, she just looks at me like, “Dude, whatever,” and walks off.

At least she’s not turning 16 yet. When that does happen, drivers of the world, beware.

 

Some Things Never Get Old

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There are a few things that never get old:

1) Friends who accept you for who you are, goofiness and all.

2) Cats sleeping contentedly in your lap.

3) When the Titans win, especially when they win in the last minute.

4) Fall weather.

5) Things that bring bring back childhood memories in droves, like carving pumpkins.

6) Knowing that the best is still yet to come.

7) Good books and good movies.

8) Grace.

Cat Naps

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I don’t know where they came up with the term “cat nap,” because it certainly doesn’t apply to Lucy the Wonder Kitty. Lemme explain.

Cat naps are supposed to be short yet invigorating naps, usually lasting from 15-30 minutes. Maybe up to an hour. I’m not sure on the technicalities.

The point is that Lucy takes marathon naps. Like as in if napping were an Olympic sport, she’d be a multiple gold medal winner every four years. She has taken the nap to a new level.

Her usual day is one long nap interrupted by getting up to eat or use the litterbox. She has about 15 or so minutes of exercise and probably an hour’s worth of contemplating the mysteries of the universe (and telling no one). The rest of the time is strictly devoted to kitty dreams, probably which involve her getting to boss me around for a change.

She does like to vary it up a little bit. I like to tell people that she sleeps around. Literally. She takes naps in different places, depending on her mood and easy access. And most of all, comfort.

I suppose when you’re whatever the human equivalent of 12 cat years is, you can sleep that much, too.

 

 

Blessed are the merciful

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“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7)

In the Bible, grace and mercy are many times used together. I’ve heard it put this way that grace is getting what you don’t deserve, and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Mercy is withholding the right to revenge and giving grace instead. One of God’s characteristics is that He is merciful. If anyone had the right to exact judgment on what we’ve done wrong and how we’ve screwed up and when we’ve outright rebelled against Him, it’s God. But He in HIs grace gives us what we don’t deserve– forgiveness– and in His mercy withholds from us what we do deserve– everlasting punishment in hell.

To be merciful is to be like God. To forgive, even when forgiveness is not sought, is to be like God. Mercy is loving the unloveable. It’s easy to love someone who loves you back, but God calls us to love those who are so caught up in and trapped by fear and addictions that they are unable to love us back.

I like the Message version. It says, “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.”

If you show mercy, you get mercy. I also like to think that one of the characteristics of those who have experienced God’s grace and mercy is that they live out that grace and mercy toward others. You forgive much because you have been forgiven much. You don’t worry about the $100 worth of wrong someone did to you when God just forgave the $1 million worth of wrong you did against Him.

Brennan Manning says it best: “Our encounter with Mercy profoundly affects our interaction with others . . . . We look beyond appearances, beneath surfaces, to recognize others as companions in woundedness. Human flesh is heir to the assaults, within and without, of negative, judgmental thoughts, but we will not consent to them because God is merciful to us. We will not allow these attacks to lead us into the sins of self-preoccupation and self-defense. Swimming in the merciful love of Christ, we are free to laugh at the tendency to assume spiritual superiority– in ourselves. We are free to extend to others the mercy we have received.”

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.