We’ve had a cat problem at our house. There are two strays that keep coming into our garage and eating cat food for our two cats. We wouldn’t have such a problem feeding them, but they spray all over everything to mark their territory. Our garage stinks, my workbench stinks…they even get up on our cars and spray, so when we turn on the blower, our cars both stink! So we decided to feed our cats all they want once a day, then we shut the doors and keep them shut (our cats inside).

This morning Anita heard a cat outside wailing away, trying to get attention. We ignored it. A little later I noticed the two strays wandering off away from the house, looking quite dejected. I was glad they wandered off, but got to thinking.

Is there a lesson in all that about how we, as a church, treat stinky people trying to get into our church? People who are sinners bring their baggage in with them, and inevitably try to mark “their territory” on the inside. So is the answer to lock them out and not let stinky people become insiders, or is the answer for us to tolerate their stink for awhile and help them get cleaned up by being washed in the blood of the Lamb? I guess that becomes our personal decision, doesn’t it?

Tags: mercy, sin, stink