TGIF

“The LORD your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God.”

(Deuteronomy 4:24 NLT-SE)

Every morning about 6:AM, Liam wakes me up to let him outside.

I get up and open the door for him…but not before a lengthy ritual which I will share here despite its embarrassing nature.

Invariably, as I’m opening the door, Liam hops on the bed to gaze outside at the weather conditions before he bounds out the door.

This is where and when the ritual takes place….he cannot go outside until the ritual is completed to my satisfaction.

I have to hold him and speak to him…tell him how loved he is and how he needs to be careful when outside…stay out of the road and away from strangers…there is much that is evil outside these walls.

It is only after I feel like my whole message is received and understood do I release him to check out the rest of his realm.

When my personal stress is even higher than normal,the ritual takes longer and carries more stress when I release him.

This, you might rightly say…is really weird behavior.

It gets weirder.

I realized the other day that although I am afraid of him encountering cars or malicious strangers…what I’m most afraid of is God.

I’m afraid that God will take him from me.

Yes, I’m afraid that God will kill my cat.

You probably know by now that my cats mean the world to me…I rely on them for companionship and comfort,especially now that I’m basically trapped at home caring for a mom with dementia.

Add in all my physical issues and my social circle  basically consists of me and Liam.

Still…why would I be crazy enough to think God would do Liam in?

It’s what I was taught.

I was taught that you can never love anything more than (or approximately the same) as you love God…or else.

““If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.” (Matthew 10:37 NLT-SE)

““If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.”(Luke 14:26 NLT-SE)

Completely twisted interpretations of these verses have scarred me for life and I’ve always subconsciously tried to measure if I loved something or someone too much and thus the jealous God might wreck hell on me for my idolatry.

I’m an old man now…a pastor who is pretty well studied…I know such beliefs are a lie from the pit of hell,  but the lies of religious authorities are almost impossible to dislodge in one lifetime.

I’ve known a lot of folks who worried that they loved their families or their pets too much…and actively tried to love them less as if that would appease God….as if God needed appeasing….and loving someone less made the God of love less jealous.

This…is religious abuse and insanity.

God is love…and loving anything increases your capacity to love everything…including God..

Bad things happen in a fallen world…cats do get run over or poisoned, people get sick or have accidents and we all die of something.

However, the idea that God would take someone from you because you love them too much is theology written in hell and propagated by demons wearing the guise of being holy.

Love your pets and your people with everything you’ve got…they are gifts from God for you to love and in loving them well you love God well.

He’s the one who gave you the object of your love in the first place….and He did so because He loves you, not as part of a sadistic test.

God loves without limit…and we are being transformed into His image.

Maybe Liam and I have a few good years left after all.

He just wants me to let him out one day without the whole ritual.

He knows he’s loved…so am I…so are you.

Make your own application…