“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Ps 42:1-2a NIV)

My ragdoll cat lays here on my bed, purring to her heart’s content. She has been very persevering. She saw me enter my room and she quickly sneaked in before I closed the door. While I was taking my shower, shaving and getting ready for the night, she patiently waited.

Why? Because she knew that I would eventually come onto the bed to pray. It’s then that she would show up, and her intentions would be clear: she wants to be with me. She wants to be loved by me, she wants to be petted by me. How she relishes those moments when she has my full attention. Believe me, it’s quite hard to concentrate at times with her motor purring so loudly!

As I thought about this, I couldn’t help but wonder why she doesn’t seek me out every night. She knows this is my nightly routine, and she definitely wants to be with me.

The problem is, there are distractions that keep her too busy!

The wasp, for example. It flies into our home and needs to be fully investigated, and eventually, eliminated! For some reason wasps don’t seem to sting cats. Or at least not my cat!

And then there’s the ant that is making quite a nuisance of itself exploring our kitchen. It must also be closely observed and then swallowed.

Oh wait. The dog treats are coming out. That means there has to be cat treats as well!

And the piece of paper on the floor! Cool! It can be thrown up into the air, swatted across the floor and then chased!

The noise at the door? Better be there to either greet or attack whoever comes in!

The distractions of a cat’s life are never ending! No wonder they have nine lives! Or is it seven? Either way, they have a lot on their plate, and even though sitting at the feet of their master is their subliminal goal, time is limited and precious! They need to have time for all of those distractions, now don’t they? Who put those here anyway!

Aren’t we exactly the same? We hunger to be with God, to experience Him fully, but for some reason or another we don’t seem to find enough time in a twenty-four hour day! Maybe we could extend our days to 30 hours? Then maybe we would have the time to spend with God?

But would that truly resolve our problems? Or would we find even more distractions?

David concluded this: “When can I go and meet with God?” (Ps 42:2b NIV) Although he meant this as an indication that he couldn’t wait to be with God, we often ask the same question because we don’t HAVE the time!

Maybe, just maybe it’s time to set time aside. Those myriads of distractions that seem to be popping up out of nowhere can wait! They really can! They won’t disappear, believe me! Some of us even dream about them! So absolutely definitively they can be put on hold.

Let’s plan to spend some quality time with our Saviour and Maker instead, and let Him restore us from the stress we face. In His presence we can purr to our heart’s content, for truly there is no better place to be!

May we remember what Jesus said to Martha: “‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'” (Luke 10:41-42 NIV)

Now what! There’s a mosquito in the house! I better do something about it before anyone else finds it!

Purrrrr. . . Why worry?

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Lessons From a Ragdoll” devotional series, please click here.)