Thoughts on sheep

A few years ago, my wife and I spent a week in the countryside of England and Wales. We saw a lot of sheep and that got me thinking about Jesus' frequent reference of us as His disciples as "sheep."

It is NOT a compliment.

You could always tell when you were near sheep, even when you could not hear them or see them. Sheep stink. I do not recall Jesus saying anything about how a sheep smells, but I am pretty certain they smelled about the same 2000 years ago as they do now. They really stink.

One evening, we opened our guest window and there was this one sheep standing by himself and bleating very loudly - BAA! BAA! (long pause) BAA! BAA! (another long pause, then repeat again). I don't know what had this one so agitated, but it brought to mind Jesus' compassion, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36, NIV)

On two separate occasions, we were walking near a flock and as we approached the sheep would freeze in one spot, stare at us intently, and then run in the opposite direction. We cleared two pastures just going for a walk. It reminded me of Jesus' words, "[Sheep] will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." (John 10:6, NIV) The sheep did not recognize us and so they ran.

Once, while driving along a road next to a field, we saw a flock running from one side of a small plot of ground to the other. Nothing was chasing them - they were running before we pulled up. They were just running - 50 feet to the east, stop, turn, run 50 feet to the west, stop, turn, run 50 feet to the east, stop, turn, run 50 feet to the west, stop, turn, run 50 feet to the east, stop, turn, run 50 feet to the west, stop, turn, etc, etc, etc. We watched then do this for several minutes. On one stop and turn, the lead sheep stopped successfully short of a small ditch. The two behind him were a little slower and when trying to stop, ran into his back side pushing him into the ditch. Sort of like the three stooges in wool. How often do we run back and forth in life without a clue as to why we are running or where we are going (of even if we are going anywhere at all)? Sheep without a shepherd to lead them.

Finally, we visited an abbey on a small island. The monks raise cattle which they use to produce milk and butter for milk chocolate made on the island. They used to keep sheep but the sheep kept wandering off the cliffs on the edge of the island. Dumb. Really dumb. So the monks moved the sheep to safer pasture.

We are the Lord's sheep. Having seen sheep up close, I can better appreciate how desparately we need a Good Shepherd. And also, how much the Lord has entrusted to us to care for one another and "feed His sheep." (John 21:15-17).

God bless

Different Perspectives

One blessing of travel is the opportunity to see something common from another person's or another culture's point of view.

Passions are a part of any belief, and when the beliefs are discounted, slandered, or judged then it is easy for the passions to rise to the surface. The passions are within our control, and so are the words we choose are also within our control.

But also within our control is how we listen to another point-of-view. An example I often recall is in the closing chapters of the book by John Grisham, "A Time To Kill." The all-white jury is deliberating whether to convict or acquit the black defendant for killing the man who was accused of raping the defendant's young daughter. One juror asks the rest of the jury (in the film version, the defense attorney makes this plea) to re-create in the own mind the details of the rape, and then asks the jurors to imagine all of this horror happening to a young white girl rather than a young black girl. This ability to empathize with another perspective enables the jury to vote to acquit the father who was defending his little girl.

For those of us who have grown up with American traditions and judge other cultures against our own, we ought to ask something akin to the above example - what if it were our traditions and beliefs that are continually judged as wrong and unworthy of being followed by others - how would our passions be kindled?

Traveling has not changed my core values - I still consider myself in the conservative political spectrum, and consider myself a consevative Christian. But what has changed is that I now recognize that their other points-of-view out ehere, I am exceedingly blessed in ways that is humbling when I see the rest of the world, and that others may misundestand my points-of-view just as I might misunderstand theirs.

Our passions and our words need to be under our control. And we need to understand how it would be to be treated ourselves the way we sometimes treat our fellow Christians.

God bless