I had a thought the other day that I don’t think you’re going to like. I’m just warning you. I don’t like it, either.

The thought was this: that deep inside my heart, and I think, most hearts there is a little bit of us that is like Trump. That, I think, is why many of us react to him the way we do. We can’t bear seeing large on our screens something that has shadowy echoes in our own souls.

Believe me, I’m not defending the person and certainly not the policies. I’m just saying. Selfishness, ambition, pride, saying stupid things, thinking only about our families, forgetting the needs of others, surrounding ourselves with people who think we’re great, hording and protecting our wealth; all of these things are in our capacity and probably our experience.

So when I was thinking of ways that I get off track, I had this picture in my head of a fat cat, who looked uncannily like the President (apparently lots of other people have had similar thoughts) sitting on a purse full of jewels. That might seem like quite a cozy image, but it wasn’t to me. To me it was about hoarding gifts and about not being bothered.

I want to be bothered. I want to share the things I’ve been given. I’m not just talking about money, though I’m not leaving it out either. (However tight our budgets might be, we are far better off than most of the world.) I’m thinking of other riches, like education, supportive families, experiences, skills and abilities. How can I give freely, and not just to my friends or those who make me feel comfortable?

Some people are celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Day today. I love things like this, not because they make a huge practical difference (although who knows, they might) but because they prompt us to get our fat lazy cat selves off of the sofa and thinking about others, looking for people to bless.

My paraphrase of one of the ancient letters of Paul (2 Corinthians 5) is that because of Jesus, God doesn’t see our hoarding laziness, but reaches out to hug us and invites us to get up and join in hugging and loving the world and sharing the gifts we’ve been given. I want to be brave enough to give that a go.

(p.s. It was not my intention to offend any cat in the writing of this post, nor to insult their general reputation in any way. Please extend my apologies if I have caused offence.)