I Want the Moon God - Look What the Cat Dragged In...Leaving the Rat Race of Life

Look What the Cat Dragged In

When I was a child, I liked the Rowan and Martin’s television comedy show Laugh-In.  Goldie Hahn was my favorite actress on that show.  A character I can relate to now is Ruth Buzzi as the little old lady carrying an umbrella, always whacking the equally decrepit old man who cuddled up beside her on a park bench.  The dirty old man:  “You believe in the hereafter?  You know what I’m here after.”

Fishing or hunting for men was a little bit better when I met my husband through a secular single’s magazine ad at 36 years old.   Secular advise says that age 35-36 is the best age to find a person in online dating.  All my daughters have had similar experiences in finding the love of their life so I’m not alone in this plight.  

Logging on to my single online profile after vacation is sort of like “Okay, Let’s see what the cat has dragged on the porch today.”  When I was growing up I had this outdoor Tom cat that would leave all his trophies on our front porch which included birds, mice, rabbits and chipmunks.  The cat wanted to make sure we saw his trophy catches.  I believe it is in relationship to cats are from a predator family.  Most dogs and cats are indoor pets now.

"Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. As nocturnal predators, cats use their acute hearing and ability to see in near darkness to locate prey."

A friend at work and I were talking about how we wish life was like our computers.  We hit the delete key and delete people who have caused pain out of our lives.  The next key I would ask God for is the “clear history” like under my Internet Tools option.  We were discussing single men that email me on my online profiles.  An email to me was, “Do you give backrubs?”  That was an automatic push the delete key.   Another guy, “I want to float your boat.”  That was a little more appealing as a pick up line.   The minister who believes in giving spankings…well if a person was not corrected as a child than good luck in spanking your wife.  If she has not learned a few lessons in life by now, she may not be trainable.  I’ve heard of “turn the other cheek,” but that is over the top.  I’ve had several 2x4 boards that smacked me across the head in life. 

One thing I've noticed about many guys online profile is the "bad boy" image with the motor cycles.  Why would I want a bad boy?  I got over that from high school.  I want Dudley Do-Right.  I remember before I met my husband, I met this one man for date lunch who was a Boy Scouts troop leader.  My husband was one badge away from becoming an eagle scout as a teen.  I was a Girl Scout until I was 13 years old, and it was mainly because of my friends and my mother wanted me to be in it.  Go read the Scout's oath.  I like a guy who does community service (but not because of jail...LOL).  I like nice boys in my neighborhood, but not quite as nice as Mr. Rogers with the button up sweaters!

Girls just wanna have fun. We wanna have fun with a terrific guy for a lifetime. I have the most fun on my block. I like a man single-minded, persistent, knows what he wants does not have to keep driving his bike around the block checking out the other girls. A guy has to know you are the best girl on the block to play with. I believe I'm the best girl on the block. In the meantime, I'll ride my bike around the block checking out my options.  My Huffy is decorated in glitter, has bells and whistles and fancy handle streamers.  Other times I trade off for a more rugged mountain bike (depending on what I'm doing).

My sister-in-law told me the story of how my husband was hanging kitchen cabinets for his ex-wife and she felt sorry for him.  He was slaving away in her kitchen while they were enjoying a cookout outdoors.  Who does that for an ex-wife?  It took me quite awhile to pray positive for my ex-husband since I did want him to succeed in being the father of my children.

The song..Bad boys, bad boys what yah going to do, what yah going to do when they (or he..the grim reaper) comes for you.  Who wants to stand before God and give an account of one self and you had sex with 100 women on PlentyofFish.com and may have given them AIDS?  What kind of account is that going to be before God?  "God have mercy."  I pray that every time I see a car accident now.  When I see an adult bookstore I curse it.  That is the only thing I curse in life, like Jesus cursed the fig tree.

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment! James 2:13

I had a revelation of God's grace when I left my laptop accidentally in the restroom at Ft. Lauderdale on vacation.  I just walked by a security guard when I realized that I left it while I was washing my hands in the women's restroom.   I "begged" and "pleaded" with several security guards to go back through the gate since I had a ticket on me from exiting the plane, but they would not let me back through the gate without going to a check-in counter for a pass.  They were following their rules.  I prayed that I would get it back, because by the time I got the pass, it was gone.  Someone honest turned my laptop into a ticket counter.

If we break a law in life, we usually have to pay the penalty for the crime.  There are some instances where you can get off on good behavior depending on the crime.  God's word says that our righteousness is like menstrual rags:

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  Isaiah 64:6

When I stand before the throne of God, I'm not counting on good behavior to get me into the kingdom of heaven, I'm counting on Jesus good behavior.  I don't want to pay the penalty for my sin in life.  Jesus already paid the full penalty.  The Old Testament with all its sacrifices and rituals shows us that faith is the way to God not works.

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." John 3:3
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  John 3:5

If God is not a respecter of persons than why did he choose the Israelites?  He does not show partiality or favoritism.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:  Acts 10:34
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.  v. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. James 2:1,9

God is a respecter of faith and Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Galatians 3:6
What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Romans 4:3
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6

The other nations burned children and had prostitution in the worship of their gods.  The Israelites were the lesser of two evils to bring us the promised Messiah.  

He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 2 Kings 16:3

You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.  Duet. 12:31

After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. Duet. 9:4

Boaz was Dudly Do-Right.  His mother was Rahab, a former prostitute.  He had an understanding of Ruth being a foreigner (a Moabite) because his mother was the only foreigner that was saved in the takeover of Jericho.   The story of Ruth surprised me about Naomi wanting her daughter-in-law to move on with a relative Boaz.  I’ve not met many in-laws that are encouraging of a daughter-in-law moving on with her life.  In studying the story, I now understand that Naomi was losing her property to pay her debts.  She benefited from Ruth having a relationship with a kinsman because he was able to financially pay off her debts and redeem her life since property represented her identity with her husband back then.  “The wheels of the bus go round and round.” Naomi was scheming to make a match work between Ruth and Boaz.  It represents how Christ has given us our redemption.  It was not that Naomi was necessarily an unselfish person in Ruth moving on with her life, but there was a benefit in who she moved on with.  The lineage of Jesus Christ was through Ruth and Boaz.  It shows how God can use anyone.

Leaving the Rat Race of Life

I believe serving God’s purpose is serving my role as a priest in building God’s spiritual kingdom.  Taking prayer requests to my heavenly Father in intercession for others, making the sacrifice of praise and thankfulness, worshipping him, providing hospitality and other acts of kindness and service to my neighbor.  When I fulfill my “reasonable way to worship,” I’m leaving the rat race of this life.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:25

I therefore urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercies, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God, for this is the reasonable way for you to worship. Romans 12:1

When I first became a Christian at the age of 17 years old, I had the concept that when it came to the end of my life that it would come down to just God and me.  It was a concept because I had my parents at that time.  One month before I married my husband, I lost my father to pancreatic cancer at age 77 years old and then five years later I lost my mother.  I could pretty much pick up the phone and call my mother and know that she would support whatever decision I made in life.  My mom was on my team.  My mother accepted me the way I was in life - good and bad. 

I did not have that type of relationship with my father.  My dad harped on me about going to college and marrying a man who went to college.  I did fulfill my earthly father’s wishes right before he passed away.  I was attending college one year and my husband was the first man I married that had a college degree.  My earthly father was concerned about me being taken care of by a man and he wanted the best for me so that is why he pushed so much that I go to college to obtain a good job and I marry a man who could provide for my family.  That was a gift I gave to my dad before he passed away that I filled my earthly father’s wishes.  My father always wanted me to be an airline stewardess so he could get free flights, but I never fulfilled his wish in life to do that.

It was a concept of coming to the place in life where I was making it “on my own” emotionally because I always had my parents to depend on and then after they were deceased I had my husband to depend on.  As in the story of Job even when we have nothing in life, our health, people or possessions, we still have our faith in God.   Even Job’s wife told him to “Curse God and die.”  Either she thought he would be better off dead or she was angry at God for taking her children.  Job’s wife nor his friends were emotionally supportive.  If I was stripped naked and in a prison cell…all my possessions are gone and all my children are killed, it’s trusting that God is in control of my life.  That the abundant life does not consist of what I own or what person is with me at the end of my life, it’s knowing that I’m rich because I’m rich toward God.   

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”  Luke 12:16-21

So this really “is” the first time in life with the absence of my parents and the absence of my husband I am emotionally alone in life.  I have some other single woman friends who are divorced, don’t have parents, and don’t have a supportive ex-husband in helping them raise their children or he is totally out of the picture so they are at that same place in raising a family without emotional support of another adult.  When I went through a divorce I had the support of my parents.  This is an experience I thought I would be going through later in life, certainly not now.  We can be forsaken of man, but God will never forsake us.  My husband did not intentionally forsake me, but he was the only physical person who cared about me on a daily basis like God does spiritually.   I know some people have not experienced that kind of human love in their lives.  They never had parents who were responsive to their physical and emotional needs in life.   I’ve spoken to older widows who do not have any type of emotional support of their children either. 

Children can offer some emotional support, but mine are not married so they don't understand.  I did not really understand either when my mother lost my father.  My sister understood, because she was widowed twice and she told me the quality of my mother's life went down when she lost her lifetime companion.

Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me. Psalm 27:10

We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 2 Cor. 4:9

May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us.  1 Kings 8:47

Solomon had many wives and concubines.  That is a definition of more, more, more got to have more in life.  Solomon may have been the wisest man in his generation, but not wise in choosing his wives.  Solomon ended his life not rich toward God.  

But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites; from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, "You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 1 Kings 11:1-3

Solomon loved many foreign women: There are two obvious problems here. First, that he loved foreign women who worshipped other gods and brought pagan influences to Israel. Second, that he loved many women, rejecting God's plan from the beginning for one man and one woman to become one flesh in marriage (Matthew 19:4-6, Genesis 2:23-24).”

Although David sinned, he still ended his life rich toward God.   David’s son Absalom failed to follow in his father’s footsteps and neither did Solomon.

As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 1 Kings 11:4

For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.  Acts 13:36

Life by Bekah Shae

Here I go, I’m on my way
With my Love glasses on
Here I go, I’m on my way
I see more clearly and I feel strong

More, More, More, More
There’s got to be so much more to this life
My heart is racing just to know what it is like
More than I could expect
Anticipate or imagine
I’m willing to believe
Amazing things are still happening

I’m going to live the rich life (rich life)
The full and blessed life (blessed life)
So if you all know what I mean
Put your hands up and declare with me
Love In full effect, chaim
I’m going to live the good life (good life)
Beautiful and glorious life (glorious life)
So if you all know what I mean
Put your hands up and declare with me
Love In full effect, chaim

Here I go again on my mission to give it all
(Give it all, give, give it all, all)
Cause I’m aware that what I share
Will come back good measure
Pressed down, shaken together and running over

Life is whatever I receive it to be
Why not jump over doubt and dive into belief?
More than I could expect
Anticipate or imagine
I’m willing to believe
Amazing things are still happening

I’m going to live the rich life (rich life)
The full and blessed life (blessed life)
So if you all know what I mean
Put your hands up and declare with me
Love In full effect, chaim
I’m going to live the good life (good life)
Beautiful and glorious life (glorious life)
So if you all know what I mean
Put your hands up and declare with me
Love In full effect, chaim

No eye has seen nor ear has heard
My faith is breathing only because
I hear these words
Exceeding and abundantly
More than we could even ask or think
Surpassing all human understanding
I’ve been given this amazing peace
(This amazing peace)

I’m going to live the rich life (rich life)
The full and blessed life (blessed life)
So if you all know what I mean
Put your hands up and declare with me
Love In full effect, chaim
I’m going to live the good life (good life)
Beautiful and glorious life (glorious life)
So if you all know what I mean
Put your hands up and declare with me
Love In full effect, chaim