I feel like such a Dip...

That was actually my cat talking there. Yep, we found out today that Bella has (now had, we hope) fleas. Not really sure where they came from, but we found them pretty quick, according to the marital partner.

So I ended up going to Wal Mart to grab the collar for the cat and the dog, the carpet stuff to kill all the thousands of eggs that are no doubt sitting like little time bombs in our carpet, and most importantly, the tried and true flea dip. We then proceeded to coat every inch of our water-hating feline with flea slayer. The end result, as you can see, was a ticked off, but flea free cat.

They were congregating around her neck and face, for the most part, so at first I was rather unimpressed by the whole thing, but then when we got to the "mother load" up around her ears and cheeks, it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. You put this stuff on some perfectly normal looking hair and skin of this cat, that you've already checked, and all the sudden there is this mass exodus of these little buggers trying to avoid going to mini-parasite heaven. But otherwise, you would never have known they were there, it was this complete covert infestation!

I read more about these guys on the Wiki, and they just sit there, under the surface, even on these very sparsely covered areas like the face and ears, and just chew away, making the host itch, making them irritated and just all around miserable. Eventually, if you don't kill them off, they can give your pet all kinds of diseases, even feline leukemia and things like that that will kill them!

And I said to myself, now that has spiritual significance.

Think about it. You and I have tended to put "sin" into this definition of large, sweeping actions that destroy lives. Murder, Rape, Adultery,Terrorism, things like that. And yet Jesus hits the heart of what sin really is in the Sermon on the Mount. It's not you actually murdering someone that is the sin. No, that is the height of the disease, the killing of the soul. No, the sin is the curses you mutter under your breath, the anger you hold onto instead of humbly seeking to resolve your issues with someone, the bitterness that poisons your relationships. They are the things under the surface chewing at you night and day until finally you have gotten so sick that you finally see the symptoms.

Likewise, it's not the adulterous affair that blows your family up that is the root of the sin. No, it was the me-first attitude that capitalized your thoughts night and day, the roaming up and down whatever eye candy happened to be present at the moment, the unwillingness to accept your spouse as they are and cherish them ahead of yourself, that eventually had you over in someone else's pasture long before you actually hooked up with your secretary or that hunky guy in the self-checkout line. It was the lust chewing at you, gnawing away and bleeding you of your resolve. And it is all happening in your mind and heart way before there is any indication on the surface!

I wonder how many fleas we have hanging off us day after day, sitting under the surface of our souls, just draining us of the ability to live the good life Jesus promised. Fleas of anger, resentment, greed, discontent, lust, dissension, hunger. Some are probably so deep WE don't even know they're there, much less let on to anyone else that we might have them. After all, if people knew we had a "sin infestation", they would quarantine us, right?

This was not a great, meaningful experience for my cat. She hated every second of it, and there were times where even I, in all my manliness, was struggling just to get her to HOLD STILL AND LET ME WORK! Trust me, I have the scratches to prove it.

Likewise, I doubt many of us would say that having God "search out my heart and mind, to find if there is any iniquity in me" would be a fun experience. The sins that gnaw at us are creatures of darkness, and shining the Light that can expose and neutralize them into our lives is often a very uncomfortable experience. After all, it's so much easier when they're just under the surface, and we can pretend they aren't there, right?

Just a reminder, there's no such thing as middle ground with sin. If we think we've reached a compromise or a good "balance" with such a thing, we're still just walking around infested. What we really need is a good Dip in the one thing that can drive them away for good, the Blood of the Crucified One.

Ok, enough preaching for tonight. Time to go take care of my DOG now....