Joan of Arcadia & me

This past week on Joan of Arcadia, God asked Joan to take in a stray wild cat. Joan hates cats but she did so reluctantly. She ended up having to give it to her boyfriend Adam, who then accidently let the cat loose. Joan ended up adoring this cat and they searched all over for it. At the end, the cat and Adam run past Joan in the park and up the tree. She encounters God again and He says to her, "That's just his nature, Joan." In frustration she asks why she was given him if he was just to runaway and thought she was to help change him. God says something to the effect of, "Maybe the cat was sent to you." (and not vice versa). Meaning she was the one needing changing. That reminded me of when I served this church in OH. i was sure, and to some extent am still sure, I was sent to help grow that church to health and see it blossom. But the church nearly killed me through its gossip, mean spiritedness, deceit, and carelessness. During one of my lowest points there, one of my closest friends gave me a morsel of wisdom that has not left me: "Maybe you weren't sent to that church but it was sent to you." My boss, Fr. Turner, preached this past week about what God can do in us as we struggle through trials, persisting in prayer. A similar theme. I wish the whole journey wasn't so painful. Sure I suppose I wouldn't change as much and my character wouldn't be molded into Christlikeness instead of the narcissistic creep that I normally am. But can't there be another way? Every now and then I wish for a good ol' fashioned pentecostal revival to sweep over me, where I would be slain in the Spirit and wake up renewed, full of the Spirit, joyful, etc.