Each Wednesday,     Tim Carson shares 
the wonderings of heart and mind and the inspirations and quandaries of the spirit. You are invited to wonder along with him through the telling of stories, reflections on faith and observations on the events that shape our lives.  

Tim Carson

 

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Wednesday Wonder
September 6, 2017
 
Tiger the feral cat is in the horns of a dilemma. She lives in the wild of our neighborhood and yet eats some off our porch. She has lived a hard life. She lost one eye along the way and it just seeps. Her right front paw was recently injured and she limps around on three legs. It doesn't take much to imagine her life ruled by fear and vigilance.
 
She is right to be fearful and it has probably kept her alive. The world outside our house is a scary one, what with owls swooping down and having cats for snacks. She gets in fights, usually over territory. I don't think she wins many of those, at least she doesn't look like it.
 
Ironically she is just as afraid of the safe inside of the house as the wild outside. We, the humans, are not to be trusted. We could be wolves in people's clothing. What might we do? When you are trying to stay alive every living thing has to be assessed for threat level. Trust comes slowly. Just the other day she crept in through the open door of our entryway, each step an act of deliberation. When the wind blew the door shut the world as she knew it came to an end.
 
I am married to someone who is a feral cat whisperer. She sweet talks them until they are not afraid. She plies them with food. She persuades them that when the cold winds blow it will be much safer to camp out inside rather than outside. But they only believe her partially.
 
You see, when you've been traumatized you don't really know where it is more safe, inside or outside. When you are inside you want to escape. When you are outside you want to take shelter. So whether you are in or out you want the other. That is roughly the same predicament we all encounter walking through life: Will we feel safe in our own skins wherever our feet touch the ground? Or do we always need somewhere or something else?
 
Most of all we ask ourselves how to overcome our native fear of the unknown, the hee-bee gee-bees. Just the other day I was on the church parking lot, the next to last car to leave. I looked across the parking lot and there was a young man who used to be in the youth group at our church. I took a second look his direction and it was what I thought it was: He was handling a full grown python. That's not something you see every day.
 
After sharing some small talk and discussing his snake hobby and business, he offered me the chance to hold her. Like Tiger the cat I made a quick assessment: Is it venomous? Will it bite? Am I strong enough to handle it? Could I get free if I needed to? Who could help me?
All these internal questions took maybe took a nano-second and I said, "Sure, I'd love to." I'm such a liar. What that really meant was, "Sure, I'll do it even though I'm not used to handling snakes and don't want to be seen as a coward." I took the snake. It was heavier and more beautiful than I thought it was. In fact, the more she slid and coiled and explored her environment with her tongue the more I knew how beautiful she was. Fear gave way to adoration and a sense of wonder. Who gets to handle a python in a church parking lot?
 
It is easy to dismiss the fear and apprehension of others. Their anxiety seems so foolish and trivial. But when the snake is put on the other hand we realize just how like them we really are. Fear and dread are often the mechanisms that keep us alive. They become inappropriate when the cause of fear is no longer present.
 
If we are so graced we realize the truth that perfect love casts out all fear - the fear of not knowing, the fear of being hurt again, the fear of being prey before the predator, the fear of being afraid. Love, wonder, relationship, acceptance, and reassurance are the immunizations against fear. And that is why, I suppose, the divine nature is understood as love, the only medicine for the fears that ail us.
 
Right Tiger?

 

@Timothy Carson 2017

 

Click here to go to Tim Carson's blog, VitalWholeness  http://vitalwholeness.wordpress.com/  

Broadway Christian Church
573.445.5312   www.broadwaychristian.net