Don't be Crazy!

We had (or I should say, I had- since the cat was mine before we got married) a cat that would move her tail back and forth, think it was something to catch and then bite it.  After she sunk her teeth into her own tail, she would meow really loudly and run all over the place flicking her tail everywhere. We would come home to find that it looked like someone had used our apartment for a modern art canvas using only the color red.

We have since given the cat to another family member where, sorry to say, she is still having her little fits.  Part of me feels sorry for her.  She has to be in pain.  But then part of me wonders what in the world could make her do something like that to herself.

Are we not the same, though?

Well, maybe not in such a visibly disturbing way, but we can self-destruct quite easily without even realizing it.  We may be reacting to something in our lives or just always done things a certain way without realizing we are biting our own tails.  I guess these things could be characterized as character flaws.  They are the things we may or may not be aware of in our own lives that we do to continually keep ourselves from healing or moving forward.  They are things we get so fixated on, we forget that anyone else exists.  Sometimes, they are things that we fear the most.

Little Cat ended up actually shortening her tail she bit it so much.  The vet says she is an extremely anxious cat.  It didn't help the matter by moving her 5 times in five years, getting married and getting a dog.  But, not every animal will inflict pain upon themselves even through lots of change.  We are trying to find things to distract her and calm her so that she does not hurt herself anymore.

In my own life, I find that the thing that greatly settles me is basking in the warmth of God's love.  This morning, I opened a little new testament that had a commentary in it.  I opened it to John 3.  The title of the section was: It is a Fact that God loves you.  I love that.  No matter how much I twirl around in a circle trying to bite my tail and look crazy, God loves me.  He waits for me to settle down and shows me the alternative to what I am doing to myself.  Old habits die hard, but I sure am willing to fight!