Confessions

I have a confession to make. Now, I will warn you, this confession might make some of you look at me in shock, while others might consider what I am about to tell you a major sin.

I have been feeding and caring for a cat.

Well, to be completely honest, it has been a kitten, but anyone who has known me for any length of time knows my complete distaste for all things cat. “Kittens,” you have heard me say, “might be cute, but they grow into cats.”

Why would I have such a strong dislike for cats? I’m allergic. As a boy, I suffered severe allergies and cats were one of the worst. Merely entering a house that contained a cat would cause my sinuses to close, my lungs to struggle, and if the cat touched me, I would break out into hives. Cats got under my skin, and I hated the way I felt around them. It wasn’t long until I decided anything that made me so miserable could have no redeeming quality. Thus began my longstanding zero tolerance policy toward cats.

However, something changed this past year. Many of you will remember my newsletters from the beginning of the year concerning our unwanted rodent house guests. If not, you can read the articles by clicking here. What was not mentioned in those articles was that only a few months prior, as a part of my zero-tolerance policy, I had the cat living under the house removed.

It wasn’t until after I fought “the battle of the rodent intruders” that I realized the folly of my policy. The cat had kept the intruders at bay. My fear of allergies caused me to drive the cat away even though it had never come near me, caused a single breathing problem or one itchy hive. But because the cat had the potential to get under my skin, I drove this vital member of my household away.

Sometimes, I think we do the same thing in church. We all know those people who have that personality, who can so easily get under our skin. It’s as though they give us mental and emotional hives. It’s not that they are bad people; it’s just a personality clash… a social allergy.

At first we avoid the allergen, giving it as wide a berth as possible. We tell our friends about our allergic reactions. We might even decide that anything that makes us so miserable must have no redeeming quality. Eventually our aloof or discouraging behavior drives it from the house.

But have we, for cause of a social allergy, driven away that which has a vital place in the church?

“For the body is not one member, but many [and] God has
placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.”
1 Corinthians 12:14,18

I have decided that though this new cat can just as easily get under my skin, I’m not going to drive him away. Though we’ll never be best friends, he’ll always be welcome.