So, I’ve had this problem a few times. Lol. My family has two cats right now. One of them is named “Link” (and yes, that’s because of the awesome Nintendo games). Link likes to jump up and sit on my lap whenever I’m sitting around on a couch. Then, he’ll try to lick my face. At first, I didn’t give it much thought. I just let him do it. But then everything changed.

One afternoon, Link jumped up and started licking my face again. I thought it’s a kind of weird way to express affection but whatever works. Cats have limited options on how to communicate with us. After he got done licking my face this time, he promptly turned around, spread his legs and started licking his butthole. That freaked me out! I pushed him off of me and immediately washed my face. Link hasn’t licked my face since that day. Oh, he still tries…. I’m just unwilling to let the same tongue that touches his butt touch my face.

I sat around and thought about this for a while. I was just thinking, “Geez! Link is such an idiot! How could he ever think that someone would want to be licked if he licks his own butt with the same tongue?” Then, I realized the irony of it all. I’m just like Link in my approach to God many times…. Except I’m not literally licking my butt. I’m just using my time to sin rather than using it to love God and others. I’ll spend quite a while disobeying God in some area of my life (practically licking my butt), and then I expect to be able to come up to God and love on Him. He’s repulsed by such a gesture. I can just see His face looking as though He just bit into a lemon and Him moving His face away as I try to lick him with the tongue I just used to curse someone with. It is that sort of lukewarm spirit that Jesus so boldly spoke against in Revelations.

Don’t get me wrong. God is a loving God, and He has unconditional love for us regardless of what we do. He’s just like the father of the prodigal son. All the while, He loves us…. Even when we’re committing adultery, murdering each other, and throwing away our money on disposable pleasures. BUT God will not reveal His heart to such a person. He can’t reveal His heart to you if there’s sin in the way. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands”. When you express your love to Him by following His commands, God will show you deeper things about Himself (which includes His amazing love).

Does that sound like anyone you know?  What about yourself?  Are you too complacent to ever challenge your beliefs, self-imposed restrictions, and cultural norms?  Will you constantly accept the tasteless food and water given to you without question?  What if those other 57,268,900 square miles of land on the earth hold something new and exciting?  Something better than you could have imagined while sitting in your cage.  Break the cage.  A better analogy for us would be a lion in a picket fence.  We can break out of our cage.  All it takes is the courage to overcome our fear of what’s outside.  You have to learn who you are, and that will never come while sitting in your cage.

When I looked at those rabbits, I saw the cage that I am in.  I occasionally challenge my cage and attack it, but I want to break it.  Permanently.  I’m going to live passionately.  I’m going to live a life that’s for one thing…. A life that defies the norm of complacency and death.  We fantasize about living a life such as this with quotes like, “Sing like no one is listening.  Dance like no one is watching.  Love like you’ve never been hurt before”.  Yet, how many of us truly do?  Here’s to breaking out of the cage of societal-defined norms.  Live life like God intended.  Uninhibited and unashamed of your passion for Christ.  A life that’s in desperate pursuit of Jesus because He is the only One that can satisfy everything you long for.  A life of radical prayer and fasting.  That is the life I want to live.  I am going to dive head-first into the heart of God in order that I may truly know Him.