The Attentiveness Weapon: Pussycat, Pussycat—Did you Notice the King?  

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Quite a trip. Quite an opportunity. And…quite a cat!

An audience with royalty, and what caught its eye? A mouse under the chair. Really? All the way to London, and we’re still doing pest control? Apparently, you can take a cat to the palace, but a mouse can still steal the show.

Before we question the cat’s priorities, perhaps we should check what’s been getting our attention.

Yes, we’re still in election season. Candidates are sharing their majestic visions. Commentators are holding court, delivering court-jester opinions with the confidence of kings issuing royal decrees. Our phones insist we need an update every eleven seconds—keeping that royal pain in the you-know-what alive and that nervous eye twitch well exercised. Both should last until the next election—which will arrive faster than my new dog Princess chasing a cat through Buckingham Palace. However, amid the overblown headlines, inflated promises, and conversations with more twists than a palace staircase, one question deserves our attention:

Are we hearing God’s majestic and gracious voice through Jesus Christ, our King?

Okay…confession time: don’t we sometimes hope God will confirm what we’ve already decided? We ask to hear His voice, then spend most of the conversation making sure He hears ours.

Apparently, even the King needs our briefing. Wink, wink.

We want God to fit our image when He calls us to grow into His—to reflect what is true, good, and just, no matter which side we lean.

Jesus says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15, NIV).

Sounds simple. We have ears. The challenge is giving Him our willing attention—even amid the hoopla that seems as crazy as a pastor using royal nursery rhymes and pest control to get people’s attention to hear God’s voice.

Attentiveness is giving God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—our willing attention so we can recognize what He is revealing and respond faithfully, becoming more fully human rather than more religious through Jesus Christ. 

This makes sense, since Jesus’ primary focus was to condemn bureaucratic religious people whose passion for God was completely out of control, as reflected in how they represented “In God We Trust” through their hard-hearted, stiff-necked way of hearing God’s voice.  

In Matthew 11:1–24, John the Baptist sends messengers to ask Jesus, “Are You the One we’ve been expecting, or should we look for someone else?” Why did he ask? Because things were chaotic and out of control. Sound familiar?

John had prepared the way for Jesus. Now he was in prison, and he had questions for good reason; John sensed his days were numbered and nearing their end. Like John, faithful people whose days are numbered and will end sooner or later also have questions. 

Jesus points both John’s followers and us to what we hear and see: people being healed, the dead being raised, and good news reaching the poor in spirit, not the poor in material wealth. These works echo promises in Scripture, helping John and us to recognize God’s activity even while his and our circumstances remain dire and painful.

That matters. Our pain deserves care, and our questions deserve honesty. We can bring both to Jesus while remaining willing to receive an answer we didn’t anticipate.

We can trust Him with what we know—and humbly acknowledge what we don’t.

Then Jesus describes people who criticized John’s simple way of life and His own eating and drinking practices. Neither approach, John’s nor Jesus’, satisfied them. Again, sound familiar? Like children demanding others follow their tune, we expect the response to suit our preferences rather than King Jesus’ Way, Truth, and Life. Are you paying attention?

Which brings us back to our own ears: 

Am I listening for God’s voice, or listening for God to agree with mine?

Election season offers plenty of opportunities to find out.

Can I acknowledge something truthful about both a candidate I support and one I oppose? Can I recognize something troubling in both one I resist and one I support? Can I consider an uncomfortable fact about either side without jumping to conclusions based on party precedent? Or, better yet, can I love the person across the table while disagreeing with the name marked on a ballot?

It’s here: faith, knowledge, humility, and love belong together. Faith turns us toward Jesus. Knowledge helps us examine the claims. Humility admits we may need correction. Love keeps our neighbor’s humanity in view, rather than hate that chops off heads, as we see in the case of Jesus’ friend, John.

Jesus closes this portion of His instruction by confronting the towns that witnessed His mighty works yet failed to repent. This means attention calls for a response to notice the KING first, not the king.

So, let’s pray, check the facts, consider our neighbors, and admit the limits of our knowledge. Then vote thoughtfully, take responsibility, and remain teachable even when the world chops off heads.

So the cat went home after frightening a mouse. I wonder what it missed.

Before we mark the ballot, let’s give the King our attention. He may have something to say about what we’ve been chasing.

As always—God is here. God is able. God is good.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but we support the author’s constitutional right to express those opinions.