Wednesday, October 9, 2013

RUNNING AWAY

Baxter has certain odd behaviors.  One of his strangest is associated with his bathroom habits.  After Baxter makes his deposit in the litter bank, he jumps out of the box and makes a mad dash either under the bed or into the front room.  This reaction has become so routine that when I hear or see his Olympic sprint, I know what lies waiting for me to clean.  Why he makes this sudden run is beyond my understanding.  Maybe he is trying to convince himself that he didn’t do what he did.  Perhaps he thinks, “If I get away quickly, no one will know who left the deposit in the litter box.  I can pretend it was somebody else.  Maybe my house servant will think a strange cat visited and used my clean bathroom.”  Baxter has some strange thoughts at times--as do we.

We may think, “If I run away from my problem, it will go away.  If I pretend I’m not involved, maybe they will miss me and blame someone else.  If I leave a mess behind me, I can deny responsibility for it.”  We can try to play escape artist with our real life problems, and turn to another situation, another person, another set of beliefs and practices to avoid facing the consequences of our choices.  But it doesn’t work.  We can run away from a particular messy encounter, but we can’t run from the common denominator of our problems—ourselves.  If we have a problem and don’t take ownership for it, we are very likely to run into the same kind of problem again in a different circumstance.  We are agents of our own fate when we decide how we respond to whatever comes our way in the course of living.  Only by accepting that God gave us freedom and understanding to make our way through life, will we grow along the way by learning from our mistakes and changing our course of action.  We may find ourselves in a mess at times, but only we can clean it up and move on.  If we don’t, we get stuck making the same messes in new settings.

God says, “Use your head; make a decision; take action.  Seek counsel from a trusted confidant to confirm your insights and gain courage to act.  Be open to change.  Take responsibility for your actions and their consequences.  I am with you no matter what happens.”  With this message rooted in our faith, there is no need to run away from our problems and nothing gained by doing so.  Embracing them becomes the fertile ground where God will yield the fruits of grace in our lives.

So don’t run, Baxter.  We all know who did it.  Relax.  I’ll clean it up.