Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Many of you know I enjoy building things and home projects. I enjoy renovating and creating new spaces and places for people to enjoy.

It won’t surprise many of you either to hear that I enjoy making those projects…extra. Why just build a shed when you can build one that looks like a chapel? I enjoy figuring out ways to make whatever it is that I’m working on communicate and extra sense of joy and attention to detail.

It’s a bit like any art I suppose — it takes a certain kind of focused attention to make the joy come through.

The project I’m working on now is a cat wall. I initially was just going to throw some shelves and a bridge up on the wall and let them enjoy that. Then I started looking at this blank wall that sits between what is to be an office and a living room.

I decided to put the cat wall inside the wall itself, it will have portholes, ledges, windows, and more. The cats can roam up and down inside it and we will have access via removable panels on each of the five levels of the wall.

It will have a portcullis for the entrance.

Now, if all of that sounds like a bit much for cats, it is! But I suppose that’s how I feel about most things in our lives — do them with joy, curiosity, and a sense of open, seemingly ridiculous at times, love.

These cats might enjoy the wall. They might not. Karrie might enjoy seeing the cats while working at home in the office. She might not. But I will be happy knowing that I took the time to create a place of playful connection for all of them.

It seems like one of those small things God is calling us to — to create moments and spaces and times for playful connection and joyful encounter. If the Church can’t be that then it needs something of a heart transplant. We live the greatest of news, the Good News. It is something to rejoice in and to take that joy into our lives in big ways and small.

Looking for opportunities for joy is a bit of a discipline, especially these days, but the call of the Christian is not just to take up our cross but to remember that it was laid down for us — and we can live, create, and seek all the ways we can to share that deeper joy — however ridiculous they might seem!

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert

PS: you can see the inspiration for the cat wall below :)