Herding cats

Several nights ago I came home with a bunch of things in my arms.  When I got through the door I could smell the unmistakable odor of natural gas.  I put everything down and ran to the stove.  Sure enough the left burner was partially on.  With my son in his room and my wife downstairs, they had not smelled the dangerous fumes. 

Well, the result of my frantic effort to take care of things was a partially closed front door.  All seemed well until Paula (my wife) and I came up stairs to the kitchen to get a snack.  We noticed it was quite cold but thought it was due to windows we had opened earlier to let the gas smell out.  Wrong!  As we came through the kitchen, we noticed the front door was wide open. 

For some that may not seem like a big problem, but we have a golden retriever and 5 cats.  The dog was accounted for, but we had to search for the cats.  We needed to find the cats so I wouldn't have to sleep in the dog house.  After about 10 minutes, we determined that P, our youngest cat, was unaccounted for. 

I took it upon myself to take Buddy, our dog, and go look for the cat.  We searched the front yard, both sides, and the backyard.  There was no sign of Pumkin.  Until . . . on one trip from the side to the front, P ran out from under the car and around the side of the house.  The chase was on.

I ran around to where he was and trapped him in a corner.  He ran around me but had to evade the 80 pound golden retriever.  He then ran into my neighbors backyard.  I made it to within about 18 inches of the cat when Buddy came bounding up beside me.  Needless to say, the cat ran away. 

By this time I was screaming for my wife to come and get the dog so I could get the cat.  Have I mentioned that the cats are hers. 

As I am trying to herd this cat into a position where I can catch him, my wife comes out and joins me with a bowl of catfood and tells me to take the dog and let her get the cat.  Two milliseconds later she has the cat in her arms and the adventure is over.

I could have chased P all night and spent a lot of energy with no real assurance that I would ever catch him.  The end result would have been an exhausted husband, an anxious wife, a scared cat, and an always happy dog. 

My wife knew P better than I did and was able to accomplish what I tried to do in 20 minutes in about 60 seconds.

THE POINT

We spend a lot of time in the church chasing people.  We expend a lot of energy and believe that means we are doing something.  We take great pride in our long hours and demanding programs.  We run ourselves and our prey ragged in this cat and mouse game called "church."

Perhaps we need to learn a lesson from my wife.  If you know those you are pursuing, there is probably a better way to "capture" them than chasing them.  Think about it.

The problem for me is that I sort of enjoy the thrill of herding cats.