On Cats and God

On Cats and God: Living the Divine Adventure

The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy but I come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly

John 10:10

The most dangerous enemy of Christians is apathy. Let me explain. We Christians have been lulled into what I call a “sleepy Christianity.” Christianity is the story about the amazing life of Jesus, the God-man, the powerful movement of the Holy Spirit and the early church, the martyr’s blood that was to be, according to second century Christian theologian Irenaeus, the seed of the faith, and centuries of faithful followers of Jesus Christ who shared his love through living and proclaiming the gospel, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick.[i] The Christian faith might be aptly deemed an epic filled with heroes and villains, courage and vice, love and hate, life and death. It is a story in which every strand pulsates with the presence of the mysterious, transcendent, merciful, gracious God who called all of creation into being. Now, I am not naïve enough to think that my writing has inspired every reader to exclaim, “Eureeka! He’s right!” (yet, I optimistically imagine that scenario as I write). But my hunch is that we all sometimes need to be shaken out of our sleepiness, to be reminded of the incredible nature of our faith. We must realize once again the remarkable beauty and greatness of our God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We must once gain cry aloud with the Psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my Soul.  O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being” (Psalm 104:1, 33; NRSV). We must once again understand that Christianity is an adventure.

At this point I must confess that I have never been accused of being a charismatic, “on-fire-for-God” Christian. I often am quiet and stand in the background while other more captivating Christians express the wonders and splendor of the Christian story through sermon, prayer, and song. My life, my joy, my ministry in the Church comes from reading and writing with the hope that some small effort I make might in the slightest bit praise God and call others to service and praise of God. There has always been a place of service in the Church for those more studious Christians from St. Augustine to C. S. Lewis. Men and women who can not sing an inspiring hymn or preach a dramatic, soul-moving sermon, but could write about the Christian faith with words so powerful that they could, do, and will withstand the eroding sands of time. While the “superstars” will never be forgotten, lesser known figures, who nonetheless shine just as bright, are often overlooked. It is one of these figures that constantly reminds me of the glorious, remarkable character of Christianity. That man is Christopher Smart.

Christopher Smart was a British scholar and poet in the 18^th century. He was regarded as a rising literary star in 1730s and 40s, that is until he was gripped by what his contemporaries referred to as “religious mania”—defined by one of his associates as “a preternatural excitement to prayer which [Christopher Smart] held it as a duty not to control or repress.” If Smart had been content to pray in private, his life might have been happier, but Smart insisted on keeling down in the streets, in parks, and in assembly rooms. Soon he became a public nuisance and the public took its revenge. For most of the next seven years Christopher Smart was confined, first in St. Luke’s hospital, then in a private psychiatric hospital. Here, cut off from his wife, children, and friends he began to write a large amount of bold, daring, beautiful poetry. After Smart’s release from the psychiatric hospital (1763), he fell into debt and died in a debtor’s prison, forgotten. However, in the 19^th century his reputation revived, and since the publication of his A Song of David and Jubilate Agno (“Rejoice in the Lamb”) his poems have become newly famous. The spirit that informs Smart’s poems is praise and celebration of God. His poems impart an intense vision of the divine presence shining through ordinary life. It is one of the sub-sections from Jubilate Agno, “My Cat Jeoffry,” through which Smart reminds us that the world has been called into being solely to pay homage to its maker and that we Christians are called to be ministers of praise—to provide a voice of praise for the whole creation. In short, that God invites us into His great adventure.

“My Cat Jeoffry” is a beautiful piece of lyrical poetry told in the first-person about the actions of the poet’s cat. The poem might be broken down into two sections. First, it describes in striking detail a day in the life of Jeoffry the cat. The poet interprets each action that cat makes as a praising God: “For at first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way. This is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness. Then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.” Next, the poet praises the attributes of the cat, praising their design and the designer who formed Jeoffry: “For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature. For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music. For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom. For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.” The entire poem is a story of how Christopher Smart’s cat praises God in his mundane actions and his very being. Jeoffry the cat is indeed a “servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.”

What can we learn from Smart’s homage to his cat Jeoffry and the God he worships? Well, the most immediate lesson learned is also the most remarkable one: Christopher Smart reminds us that all creatures have their being, their source in God. Smart teaches us through explication of his cat Jeoffry’s daily routine and characteristics that we should see every action, every moment of our day as an opportunity to praise God. This is what it means to be in an adventure. It is a way of looking at the world that awakens us to the glory and beauty behind every moment. It is recognizing that the diastolic and systolic rhythms of the world reverberate the greatness, love, and mercy of the divine God who makes himself known to us, who joins himself with us in our adventure. That is the great value of reading Smart’s poem (aside from being a nice poem for cat lovers). Christians need not fear any external threat, it is only the inside threat of apathy, of a lackluster joy that can truly destroy the passion of a follower of Christ. A cerebral reminder and recognition that God is to be praised in every action is not enough, you must put this knowledge into practice. There is no better time to begin praising God in everything you do and everything we are than right now—to live out the great adventure.[ii]

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[i] While these events are indeed the Christian story, in no way do I mean to insinuate that these events tell the entire complete story of Christianity.  That rich, diverse story would be difficult to summarize in a short article such as this one, but for those interested I would recommend Gonzalez, Justo, The Story of Christianity (2 vols., Harpers, 1984) or Olson, Roger, The Story of Christian Theology (Intervarsity, 1999).  Yet one need look no farther than the Old and New Testament’s to grasp the fact that Christianity is an amazing adventure which God calls us to, an adventure of which he himself is a part.

[ii] For further reading about Christopher Smart see Curry, Neil, Christopher Smart (Gardners Books, 2005) and “Christopher Smart,” in The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, Ian Ousby, ed. (Cambridge, 2006).  For a classic book on how to praise God, even in the mundane routine of life see Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Whitaker House, 1982).