I grew up in a family of five children and two parents. Seven people sometimes crowded into a small duplex, and at other times the same seven people spread out a bit in a large, two storey country home. Regardless of where we lived, though, whenever we went on a family vacation it was a comedy. My parents would be attempting to load the car, but people were always moving things around. Then, there was the moment when we all actually had to get into the car only to hear the question, "Where's ______?" Then, someone would have to get out of the car and go find that person. There is a descriptive phrase for such things: it was like "herding cats''.

Such things can seem funny, except when they're not. Many people reach a point in their experience in which they feel as if all of life has become one, giant herding of cats. Everything is falling apart. Everything is chaotic. The bits and pieces are all straying away in different directions. What started out as an exciting adventure, a dream shared by others, somehow and somewhere became unmanageable and unpalatable. More than that, it became sad and painful.

A medical doctor sometimes is called upon to treat sore and difficult physical maladies. Some must set broken bones or lance a boil and clean it out so that fresh air can bring healing. A psychologist is often called upon to treat painful and difficult emotional maladies. Some must provide structure for fractured minds and support for fragile and tender selves. A pastor or priest is often called upon to "treat" painful and difficult spiritual maladies. Some must admonish an unruly person, encourage a lost soul, or teach someone searching for the truth of God's existence in the midst of what otherwise seems like godless confusion.

Now, have you ever met a cat that liked to be herded? Have you ever seen a cat cooperate with the process of herding or purr with appreciation for the one tasked with the responsibility to herd them? I don't think so!

One of the common factors that leads to positive outcomes in psychotherapy is the motivation of the client to work so as to get better. That is, the person must be so miserable that he or she is willing to come and talk with someone, willing to listen to someone they think might be able to help. If they have that boil, they will sit still, even though they might yell out in pain when the doctor lances and irrigates it, because the pain of the boil has become unacceptable, and they want to get better. If they come to the psychologist, they will talk freely about their situation and they will not hold back sharing the most sensitive, the most embarrassing, the most stubborn stucknesses and the most filthy of dirty secrets, because they simply cannot tolerate living any more in the way they have been living, and they believe the psychologist can help. When such a person comes motivated to learn about God, it's usually because God has walked them into some kind of crisis, and they believe it will only take a miracle to overcome it. Somehow God, for such a person, has become the answer, but they need a guide to help them get to Him so that God can work that miracle.

Thus, when cats are motivated, they can be herded. When people are motivated, they can find healing at the deepest levels of their existence. When, however, people feel they can still handle it themselves, they cannot be helped. This is ironic, for it is true that whether a person comes motivated to a medical doctor, a doctor of psychology, or a minister, he or she will ultimately have to respond and do his or her own work (tend to the wounded boil at home, re-construct a new view of reality, yield to God and become a Christ follower). The starting point, however, is that point in a person's life when he or she really wants to change and they know they need someone else's help in order to get started and stay motivated. Then, cats can be herded, pigs can fly, hell can freeze over, and many other miracles can take place.