If You Don’t Like Cats, You Have a Problem with the Lord

Published on by D. G. Hart

Keep in mind:

He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures. (Psalm 104:5-24 ESV)

This is not a cats versus dogs thing. Like Chortles says of himself, God loves all his critters, every square inch (and all) of fur.

45 thoughts on “If You Don’t Like Cats, You Have a Problem with the Lord”

  1. funny
    think
    it is true
    🙂
    and ask the (cats) and let them teach you and let them tell you-who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind!

    Like

  5. I must REALLY love the Lord. We have a rescued cat where I work who is unofficially mine. My wife and I have 7, yes seven, rescued cats at home ranging in age from 7 months old to 12+ years.

    Like

  11. God so loved the Mastiff that he gave him the cat as a chew toy. We all have our place in the cosmos.

    Like

  12. So, when my dogs get hold of one of these cats and deal with it as required(it no longer roams the neighborhood) they’re all good, right? I’m not sure cats and dogs have gotten the memo of it not being a cat vs dog thing. Then there was the day when the herd of dauchshands from next door thought they would explore our yard. Truly a day of terror and near tragedy and finally relief. Though, one of the dauchshands in making it back to it’s yard fell over as if it were dead but apparently it just passed out from the trauma.

    Like

  13. Nothing quite like jumping to see what all the noise is about and watching as a weiner dog disappears underneath the front paws of your dog as a cloud of dust envelopes the whole scene. Meanwhile the other dog had already flanked the herd of weiner dogs to block their escape route back to their yard and funnel them into the enforcer. It was heading toward a massacre and really bad neighbor relations.

    Like

  14. Unless one is truly allergic to cats it should be mandatory to take one or more in anything that qualifies as a household. it civilizes the place and keeps one grounded in their Creator/Creature hierarchy.

    Like

  25. Some day, Darryl, some day, I’ll learn that hierarchy. Until then, I’ll just be willfully, blindfully, egocentric and self-important. Nevertheless, you work at a Liberal Arts institution, a fine traditional one I hear, so I imagine both History and Lit are required of the students. I wonder in which discipline students are required to more classes. That could give us a sense of hierarchy, I guess. But, who knows, maybe theology trumps both?

    Like

  26. cw says : Original stuff there, Ali. What was their previous name, Burgundy 5?

    glad you liked it cw. Did you notice maybe it is Greg @ ~ 38 secs (on the right) – he looks ‘chill’ there, but he might be aflame (2 Tim 1:6)

    Like

  27. @Justin and Darryl
    They still keep you guys around? I hear all the students get their leisure liberal arts credits met through the online courses offered by the local community college.

    Like

  30. Jeff, got it. Might want to add quotation marks in a statement like that to indicate the title of a play, otherwise Ariel the Mermaid might read it another way and use it to prove with absolute certainty your anti-Catholic bigotry.

    Like

  32. liberal Arts institution,local community college

    speaking of, please tell sean, or whoever, to put down the psychology book on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (other post), probability and statics books, philosophy books (don’t let him be this guy from here this am : http://www.gty.org/Blog/B161006) long enough to pick up the bible for awhile.

    Like

  34. DGH, I would use that product for combating allergies if I had to, but I have had friends whose nose and nasal passages swelled up thrice-size in 10 seconds, which is a good excuse not to have a cat.

    So maybe the neo-Cals can work on every square inch of a cat being obedient, how about getting 10% to not grumble needlessly?

    Like

  35. jeff cagle, if you don’t like cats, maybe you can join those parading and glorying themselves over their geocentric worldview on the PB….

    Like

  36. @ Kent:

    Cats are fine. Cats, on the other hand, was only OK, definitely inferior to Les Mis. Per the soundtrack.

    Geocentric? On PB? Egads.

    @ Zrim: Fie upon literary conventions. Jk

    Like

  37. Sean, I didn’t mean to insult or pick on you and mentioned your name because of your below comment.*
    The appeal was general, that someone has to lead us in faith in all this craziness in the times ahead and those someones are you ones.

    *Letmesplainsean say: Or even sleep, food, sex, money, etc. as I manage the hierarchy of needs in this life.

    About your Maslow reference, when I read it, I thought to myself- Maslow’s reasoning is just about completely antithetical to the Lord who says: But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

    Like

  38. @ Ali:

    Setting aside my clownery about cats and “Cats” for a moment, you raise an interesting question. Mazlow describes a hierarchy of needs (I’m most familiar in the context of education theory). You observe correctly that God tells us to seek first His kingdom, which certainly implies subordinting our needs to the command of God.

    But now what does this mean about Mazlow? As a Christian, should I read him as being wrong? OR, should I read him as describing human nature, making me more aware of what human needs are, so that my seeking of God’s kingdom can be more sharply focused?

    This question is one example of many questions that arise when a Christian seeks to interact with people who are subject to common grace.

    Like

  39. Hi Jeff, more please in what you are saying, and I think I know, and I’ll think about it more, but, bottomline, and in the end, not coming to a true understanding of ‘man does not live by bread alone’ or that there is only one source of ultimate satisfaction is a tragedy.

    Maslow posited that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy:
    ‘It is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread. But what happens to man’s desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled?
    At once other (and “higher”) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still “higher”) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency’ (Maslow, 1943, p. 375).

    Maslow offers the following description of self-actualization:
    ‘It refers to the person’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially.
    The specific form that these needs will take will of course vary greatly from person to person. In one individual it may take the form of the desire to be an ideal mother, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in still another it may be expressed in painting pictures or in inventions’ (Maslow, 1943, p. 382–383).

    Jesus: John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” ..13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

    Have a good day.

    Like

  40. My two cats freely rule every square inch of our 1/2 acre garden and consume 5-6 dozen voles a year. Without Lucy and Sven, ( and the local cadre of Diary barn cats) we’d have greatly reduced crops of potatoes, carrots, leeks, beets and all our melons would turn into Willy Wonka factories for fat rodents. And I rule over the cats and the garden those cats worship me even as I sit in a pong of great Nicaraguan tobacco smoke..

    Like

  42. Ali: …not coming to a true understanding of ‘man does not live by bread alone’ or that there is only one source of ultimate satisfaction is a tragedy.

    Agreed with that.

    The question I’m asking is whether Mazlow’s error disqualifies him from (a) being read by Christians, (b) appreciated by Christians, (c) used by Christians in a qualified way, (d) used by Christians in an unqualified way, (e) endorsed by Christians as helpful, (f) used in a Bible study, (g) read from the pulpit?

    Like

  44. Jeff Cagle says: Agreed with that. The question I’m asking is whether Mazlow’s error disqualifies him from (a) being read by Christians, (b) appreciated by Christians, (c) used by Christians in a qualified way, (d) used by Christians in an unqualified way, (e) endorsed by Christians as helpful, (f) used in a Bible study,
    (g) read from the pulpit?

    Hi Jeff, It’s been a long time since I’ve studied him and only gave him a thought when sean’s recent phrase triggered it, so I haven’t considered him recently. Apparently others have, given internet data available. Here is one interesting piece I just called it up , long, and I haven’t gotten through it so I’m taking a chance linking it and hope it’s faithful. http://www.christiandiscernment.com/Christian%20Discernment/CD%20PDF/Roots%20pdf/09%20Maslow.pdf

    About your questions – no lie is of the truth – so we believers must be very careful and clear about that. The world is ‘anti-Christ’ in many overt and subtle ways, but believers are all for Christ and desiring never deny him in any kind of way. Is that a sufficient answer for you?

    I will say when I studied Maslow in college I thought it was all fascinating and important and illuminating and presumed it true. Though I ‘went to church’ (Lutheran) up until then, I never gave a thought to whether or how the bible spoke to these things, nor whether any of it contradicted God. It just wasn’t my THINKing.

    We really must help our children THINK correctly. We have no greater joy than this – to hear of our children (knowing and) walking in the truth. Right? I wonder what sean, himself, meant when he referenced ‘hierarchial’ needs?

    Like

  45. Love cats, don’t bless them:

    “Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless this pet. By the power of your love, enable it to live according to your plan. May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen.”

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.