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Gerry Gutierrez' Update
“Testing
humor as the best medicine.”
“Tall
trees and cats.” It is Sunday [Jann13] and I have two stories for you about tall trees
and cats. The only problem is that once you clime to the top of the tree and
look down, you will be scared to come down like the cat of our neighbors in the
Andes that was chased by our dog Chasky to a very
tall tree in our backyard but the cat was not able to come down even with the
help of Caleb and his air rifle but only “meow and meow” all night long. It seems to be that my views on prayer has driven me to the top of
that “tall tree” in the garden of God and now I am annoying people with my
endless “meows”. Some like my son Caleb are trying to shoot me down not so much
because I bother them but because they are afraid to clime but are tempted to
clime yet are afraid to get stuck with me and Jesus in the loneliness of
Gethsemane. Most people are left behind at the bottom of the mountain in “the
journey of Prayer.” A hand full of people, like in Jesus’
time, follow Jesus half way to the top of the mountain of prayer. Only
Peter, James and John go all the way to the top of the Mountain, but even they
fall asleep after only one hour resting in the lower branches of the “tall
tree” of prayer tired. Some are happy with the low hanging fruit of prayer as
one more thing of the many spiritual exercises. Today I have the sense that
some godly people are taking more and more seriously the “tall tree” of the
Garden of God which is Prayer. Let me tell you the second real story about another cat that
reminds me of myself. A pastor heard a cat up in a tree near his office parking
lot. Since he was a compassionate man he could not ignore the “meows” of the
poor cat in the tree so he decided to help the cat to come down. He had a rope
and managed to tie the rope to the tree as far as he could clime it and started
to pull it down slowly with his pick up truck to bend down the tree low enough
so he could reach out to the cat and bring her down to safety. In the most
critical moment the old dry rope broke and the cat flew like a rocket over two
houses away. The embarrassed pastor looked left and right and quietly drove
away. Two weeks after the incident the pastor met a lady member of his
church in a pet store buying cat food. “I did not know you had a cat,” the
pastor commented to her. The lady proceeded to tell her: “You will not believe
what happen to me two weeks ago pastor. My little girl Gabriella asked me if we could buy a cat, I said
no. But I love cats and I want to have a cat, she keep insisting and I keep
saying “no and cats are very expensive” I answered her. Then she said; “what
about if I ask God and he provides a cat for me, then could you let me have
it?” I said yes that she could have it. You would not believe this pastor, but
as Gabriella was praying with her little hands together and her eyes closed; lo
and behold out of the blue sky a cat lands in front of her and I saw it with my
own eyes. “So we have a cat.” If there was one who would believed that story it
was that pastor. (a real story, told by Dr. Steve
Brown .) Perhaps you are that pastor, or that praying child, or the lady in
the story. I know who am I at least at this time of my life. I am the cat and
prayer is the tall tree and the rope that broke is my stroke that has
catapulted me like a rocket all the way to Los Angeles. The house where I have landed has
already “cats.” If you are hearing “meows” in and through this letter and you like
cats, I am is search of room in the Inn before I pick up my mat and go home to
Georgia.
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