Sometimes, the Show Must Not Go On, and FOREIGN RELATIONS

(Movie spoiler alert)

It’s fun to write about movies.

As I wrote in an earlier post, it’s impossible to escape their influence.

So we contemporary ministers might as well look at them as opportunities, as opposed to enemies.

For instance, I get a good laugh out of those movies involving ” killer” beasts. You know, the ones that feature an imprisoned creature, or one simply being itself in its own environment.

Some geniuses will get the bright idea to experiment with an animal, then when the animal fights back it becomes a horror that must be stopped.

Some of these movies, even the cheesy ones, really do capture that timeless theme of Man’s repeated mistake of enslaving a living creature.

Maybe the caged creature seeks its freedom and escapes, but not before devouring its captors.

Or, the movie may make the captors the heroes when they finally kill the creature. The very creature they enslaved, or experimented with, or targeted in some unjust way.

However, in Free Willy, we the audience get to cheer for a beautiful creature that returns to sea.

Willy, an uncooperative ” show” whale, is viewed as a problem when he doesn’t want to perform.

Thank God for a feel-good happy ending!

But more than that.

It was the right ending.

And don’t we sure need those!

FOREIGN RELATIONS

So I’ve been running a Soup Kitchen for some stray cats.

These cats, that “live” at a house across the street, risk death almost everyday to partake of something good.

They’ve been there several years, as tenants come and go. I don’t know who the owner of the house is, and the present tenants do not speak English, so they didn’t understand my questions about the cats.

I tried to find out if they were feeding them.

They are not household, domestic cats. They are wild and scared of most people. Even me, who has been putting out bowls of milk and sausage on my front porch. They lap it up!

What is the humane thing to do?

I do not want to call animal control, because they are not domestic enough to be pets. They’d probably be euthanized.

I think they’d be great on a farm, or with someone who lived out in the country with lots of land for them to roam and do whatever it is wild cats do.

It’s a foreign relations problem.

They show up at my door, hungry, and scared.

I cannot have a reasonable conversation with the tenants due to the language barrier.

I do not have the heart to ignore the cats when they are at my doorstep.

And, quite frankly, I have little confidence that I’d get anywhere with the owner of the house, based on diverse experiences in my community for the last seven years.

I’m surrounded by unreasonable people. That’s the truth.

This is when I’m reminded of the practical application of Amos 7:7-8.

(Oh, to have the power to intervene for those who cannot speak for themselves!)

Beginning with the creatures under our care, or on our property.

The cats are living, breathing creatures. They are also smart.

I have seen the bravest one cross the road, check out the food on my porch, eat a little, and go back to “tell” the others about it. One by one, they dart across the road, constantly “watching their backs.”

I believe the most humane solution is to contact the owner and discuss the possibility of finding them a home.

I just get tired of unreasonable people.

This must be what it’s like for America’s leaders; those who do have a heart and desire to seek a win-win solution, if possible. Those who do not quickly rush to arms.

I believe in that America–

And I will forever defend her.

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