Dog or Cat; Cat or Dog

I've often heard, no often remarked, that men are like dogs and women are more like cats. Forget that categorization. That's not what I mean.

Dogs -- faithful, dependent, always following, child-like, curious, playful, and loyal.
Cats -- indifferent, independent, mature, etc...

Okay, here's the dichtomy. The Christianity (Churchianity) we've been given has one as the example of the internal life and the other as exemplary of the outer life. My contention is that the reality is the opposite.

Churchianity -- religion. Says that internally you are to be the cat and externally you are to be the dog.

You know the type...heck we are the type...internally we are to be stoic, unmoved, mature, and independent. Here's the problem, that's where our relationship with God is. That cat's normal attitude is, "What have you done for me lately." That's our attitude with God. So religion says that we are to be cats internally. BUT externally we are to follow after all the things on the outside. Especially religious leaders. We are to chase after everything that catches our religious attention and scare it away. Or run after it. Therefore because we are cats inside we MUST be dogs outside. We NEED outside validation, because inside we are cold, alone and aloof.

Christianity though is the opposite. On the inside we are dogs, it is here that we follow God in playful dependence, loyalty, excitement MERELY over His presence. And it is from this exciting internal relationship where eveything is provided for us, that we can be cats on the outside. We are not moved by the flash. We can be aloof to the manipulation attempts of others. We can have a "What have you done for me lately," outlook, in this sense, "Can you REALLY even do anything for me?"