“Meow! Meow!”
“Annie?” I said as I woke out of my sleep.
“Meow!”
I pulled back my bedroom curtain and saw Annie, the stray cat my family and I have been taking care of, sitting on the ledge of my bedroom window!
“Meow! Meow!” She cried as she brushed her cheek against the window glass.
“Good morning, Annie! Thanks for waking me up!” I said with a giggle.
I walked out of my bedroom and into the kitchen, where Mom was making food for the church’s Vacation Bible School program that week.
“Guess who woke me up!” I chirped.
“Let me guess…Annie?” Mom replied as she shaped the veggie burgers she was making.
“Yep!” I said. “What’s she doing here?”
“She wants food, and I keep telling her that all her food is in the backyard, but she’s still hanging out at the front door!”
“Meow!” Annie cried through the front screen door.
It almost sounded like she was asking for help to get to the back. Or, perhaps she felt too lazy to go to the backyard on her own.
“I’ll help her, I said as I put on my Crocs. “I already have a bit of an idea on how to get her from the front yard to the backyard.”
The idea was simple.
Get a handful of her cat food, and use it to lure her to the back.
Simple, right?
Well, I’d soon find out that wouldn’t be the case.
Because everything turned from a simple “feed the cute stray cat” situation to an interesting “obstacle course” of awkward, unexpected circumstances.
Take the first obstacle, for instance.
Obstacle #1: The Early Bird
As I started on my early morning trek to help Annie the stray cat navigate her way to her food, I came across the first obstacle.
One of the neighbors was sitting outside in her yard, her back towards me.
What is she doing out here? I thought. Shouldn’t she be getting ready for work or something?
Feeling awkward at having to walk past her in my PJs, I made a U-turn.
“What happened?” Mom asked as I was walking back.
“One of the neighbors is sitting outside,” I answered.
“Oh, couldn’t you go the other way?” Mom asked as she pointed an alternative route to lure Annie from the front to the back.
However, that route would require me to walk through another neighbor’s yard, and I honestly didn’t want to do that.
With the cat kibble still in my hand, I glanced up to see if the early bird neighbor left her yard perch.
It LOOKED LIKE she did.
So, I resumed to continue with my original course….until I realized she was STILL sitting there!
That moment, God began to speak into my shy, awkward thoughts.
Just go. The gate door is open for you to help Annie get her food. Just go!
So, I semi-awkwardly power walked past my neighbor, not giving her any notice, and went through the gate, down the tunnel that connected the backyard area to the front yard area of the apartments, and finally got to Annie.
“Hi, Annie!” I said.
“Meow!”
Obstacle #2: The Wandering Cat
“Annie, look! I piped up as I lowered my hand down and revealed the cat kibble in my hand.
That moment, Annie got up and I began to walk back toward the tunnel. There were times where Annie would kinda stop following me, so I would have to show her the kibble again and she’d resume following me.
But just as we were maybe three feet away from entering the tunnel and finally making it to the backyard, Annie wandered toward one of the neighbors’ apartments!
“Annie! Over here!” I said, running after her.
Suddenly she began to dart back to my house’s front walkway area.
“Annie! Come here! You can have this!”
I plopped the handful of cat kibble on the ground.
“Meow!”
Annie then made a crazy U-turn and began to eat up the dry cat food.
Just as she was about to finish eating, I picked her up.
Annie squirmed a little, obviously not used to being carried by a human.
“Annie,” I said. “I know you don’t like being carried, but this is the best way I can take you to your food in the back!”
I carried her though the tunnel until we got to the gate. Thankfully, the door was still open.
I put her down, and the next thing we knew, we were darting like arrows through the neighbors’ backyards until we got to my backyard, where Annie was able to finally have her fill.
The Lesson Behind The Story…
As I reflect over my experience with helping Annie find her food, I can’t help but see it as an allegorical parallel to the work of evangleism.
Many lost souls in this world are like Annie, hungering for something to satisfy their deepest, heart-felt needs–but clueless over where to find it.
And us Christians are given the privilege to help the spiritually hungry around us find “the Bread of Life,” Jesus Christ (John 6:48).
But oftentimes, like my experience with Annie, leading the lost to Christ will always mean obstacles popping up.
Whether that means embarrassing yourself (like what I encountered with my early bird neighbor) or having to “carry” the lost soul to the Lord in the arms of prayer (like what I ended up physically doing to Annie), evangelism isn’t always the smoothest ride to say the least.
But despite the bumps and inconveniences, the work of evangelism will ALWAYS come about with results that are WORTH IT!
Especially the result of seeing the spiritually hungry finally and fully feast on the love of Christ.
Just like Annie was able to finally and fully stuff her hungry little belly with the cat food.
A Promise
Dear reader, are you struggling with some issues as you’re trying to seek and save the lost? Are you feeling overwhelmed by roadblocks that are making things difficult and inconvenient for you to personally evangelize?
Friend, if this is the kind of situation you’re in, I wanna encourage you to meditate on this powerful and encouraging Bible promise:
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
(Galatians 6:9)
Amen! Maranatha!