Lessons from Booger

Meet Booger. Booger is a feral cat that lives on 10th Street in Waco. Booger roams the neighborhoods that cradle the south side of the Baylor University campus and survives on the kindness of the students who live in the area (except for that fact that they named him Booger).

I met Booger last week when I was moving my daughter home from Waco. I saw a grey flash and then heard Emily say, “Oh, hey Booger.” I’m not a real cat guy, but he had me at “Hey Booger.”

Maybe it’s the sad state of feral cats. Maybe it’s the hunger I know he suffers from. Maybe it’s his orphaned state, but suddenly Susie and I had the great idea of giving Booger a home.

So yesterday when I was back in Waco I tried to put Booger in a crate so I could bring him back to Austin. He wanted not part of it. Booger clearly wanted our attention and the food we might offer him, but he didn’t want to be confined, not that I can blame him. He wanted us, but on his terms. So when I left Waco last night, it was without Booger. He remained behind on 10th Street, free but hungry.

Such is the way with so many of us and God. We want him to feed us, we want his protection and comfort, we want whatever he can give us, but we don’t want the supposed confinement that comes from a relationship with him. Dad baggage, church baggage, religious baggage, etc., all work to make us hungry for what God may do for us but leery of releasing control to him. Such commitment looks more like slavery than freedom. We’d rather have our independence and face the ravages of spiritual hunger than be tied down by an autocratic master.

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it . . . .

Don’t be a feral person. Don’t be a spiritual stray. Don’t seek God just enough to get what he can offer, for the best that he can ever offer is himself.