BILLY THE CAT

It's kind of funny to me that I am writing my fist blog ever about my cat Billy. Billy is a pretty cool cat. I got him about three years ago. I wanted the fluffiest cat in the world, and that's pretty much what I got. But what I didn't know at the time, is that I also got the smartest and craziest cat in the world. Billy can actally open doors on his own. When I lived in an apartment, he LOVED being outside so he would just sit on our poarch (we lived on the third floor). One day we couldn't find Billy. We looked EVERYWHERE, until I found him down on the ground below. Just sitting there as if nothing had happened. Well, now that we live in a house, Billy always wants to go outside. Billy is a cat that likes to live free and do what he wants. He can open the front door and goes out on his own. How many cats can do that????

I actually see a lot of myself in Billy. Maybe that's why I am so intrigued by him. I know that Billy loves me because at times he'll come up next to me purring and purring. And other times I will want to hold and pet Billy and he just runs away. I think that is how I am with people. Sometimes I really open up with people and show them how much I love them and how much they mean to me. Other times I feel so closed off from everyone and everything, like I am in my own world, and I am just running away. Even more, at times I feel this is the way I am with God. I scare myself. Sometimes it just feels so uncomfortable to be down here on earth all wrapped in skin struggling to understand this life, God, and why I'm even here. I wonder if Billy ever thinks that??

I feel like in some way or another we are all struggling for freedom. I mean wasn't America founded by a bunch of people who more than anything wanted freedom. People now and throughout history have gone to such great lengths to achieve this freedom. And what does that mean. To be free: to be free from worry? To be free from self doubt? To be free from sin? To be free from what the world says we should be? To be free to love? To be free to hate? To be free from the constraints of our culture and society? To be free to be the creations we were intended to be? "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Galatians 5:1 Is there any freedom apart from Christ?

So, yesterday I came home from work and unknowingly left my cell phone sitting in the back yard. By the time I realized I had left it there, it was about 10:00pm. I am came outside and picked it up and it was all wet from dew. So I wiped it off on my pants. Then I opened it up, and it was wet on the inside, which I thought was strange, but I just wiped off the inside. Then all of a sudden I realized by smell, that my phone wasn't wet from dew, but because Billy had peed on it. I find this pretty funny, and also somewhat annoying. But, I think that if I were Billy I would also want to pee on my cell phone. I continue to struggle with all these electronic gadgets that are supposed to be bringing us all this increased freedom, when really it seems to me as if we are becoming their slaves.

I want to be free. I'm not sure if on this side of heaven I'll ever totally experience freedom, but I can dream. Until then I will continue to appreciate my cat Billy and how I see freedom expressed in him.