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Parables
of the Pastor’s Cats
Prone to Wander
It had to happen, I suppose. But I wasn't
too happy about it.
He probably left in the
night. I saw him late the day before, but he didn't show up the next
morning for
breakfast in the barn. I served a pan of dry catfood, his favorite, and
all the othe cats gathered to jostle for the best possible position at
the morning meal.
But
he wasn't there. 
We've had some prior experience with cats leaving, and people tell me
that it's
inevitable. Cats roam. Especially tough tomcats with something to
prove.
We have a few farms nearby, all within a mile across the
empty fields. New worlds. New experiences. An easy hike for a cat who
wants to see the world.
And even if it wasn't easy, there is something
inside tomcats that tells them to go.
They're just prone to wander.
Like the song.
I looked out over the field, and I heard the words of an old hymn in my
head.
I've sung the song more than a few times. But this time was different.
Prone to wander,
the song says, prone to leave the one I love, the one
who loves me. When God is so good to me, still there are times I feel
the pull to walk off to where life is more dangerous.
And I don't even know why. It's a part of who I am, something deep
inside.
Just as I feel the need to find God to fill an incomplete part of me, I
also feel the urge to fight against what I know is good and right. Two
impulses. One good, one not.
It's human nature.
We live with a choice.
When you follow the pull of a good intention,
that's smart.
When you feel the tug of a bad impulse, that's a problem.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. That's what the song says. And every
time I heard it, I knew it was true. Painfully true, for some of us.
The farm is rather empty with PJ gone. I understand that he probably had
unfinished business out there somewhere.
But he may change his mind some day. He may find himself in a place he
doesn't like. He may find that no one loves him like we do.
I did. And I made a choice.
I came home.
(The song is called "Come, Thou Fount of
Every Blessing," and you can find it in many hymnals.)
Open my eyes so that I might see great and
wonderful things in your word.
Psalm 119:18
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