Minute Meditations

There is a modern day fable about two cats. The younger cat is busy going around in circles chasing its tail. The old cat just sits on the fence watching the antics of the younger cat as it gets dizzy going around and around.

Finally the old cat asks why the younger cat is so busy chasing his tail. The younger cat replies in a somewhat arrogant way that he has just returned from Cat College where he has learned that happiness is found in the tail of a cat. If he can just catch his tail, he believes he will achieve true happiness.

The older and wiser cat replies that he had not had the advantage of attending Cat College, but has instead grown up in the back alleys and has graduated from the school of hard knocks. He also acknowledges that happiness is found in the tail of the cat. However, he has learned that the proper way to live is to go straight forward trying to do the right thing and that happiness will follow him all the days of his life.

There is a simple Bible message found in this fable that we do well to remember. Jesus told us that ”Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

If we spend all our time trying to save our lives, we lose it, just like the cat chasing his tail. But if we will forget about saving our life and become totally involved in service to God by losing our life in His service, then we end up with the very thing that the losers were trying to achieve.

It is interesting that the constitution of the United States guarantees its citizens the pursuit of happiness. We have the right to chase our tail but never catch it. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ guarantees us true happiness, lasting happiness in his kingdom, by forgetting the chasing of happiness now.

As the fable teaches, happiness is found in going straight ahead, forgetting the very things that most people chase. By doing that, the things others chase to no avail just naturally follow those on the straight path. People who are bent on only doing that which will please them end up the most selfish and miserable people on earth, while those who are always thinking of others and spending their time in service to God discover that in the process they really have achieved happiness.

Now we are concerned with a higher goal than the cats, but as the fable tries to teach, we need to forget about trying to save our life and instead give ourselves wholly and completely over to God and in so doing we will achieve true happiness and eternal life in His kingdom.

We are told by Paul, ”let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself... That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”