Romania has been awesome! The culture here is beautiful, and the people are warm and welcoming. A big part of my ministry this month was photography. God is good, he knows what I love to do.
One day I set out on a mission to capture the culture of Romania in photographs. I was thrilled at the mission, and it was with one of my favorite guys here, Marian. Within ten minutes of driving I’m on a road that has empty fields for miles.
I see a shepherd with his flock of sheep. I ask Marian to pull over so I can capture some shots. I run out into the field. The shepherd noticed me and starts speaking. In Romanian of course. I politely say “nu romanesti” which to me translates “I don’t speak Romanian.” Who really knows?!
He starts to hand gesture to watch him. I am actually thinking he is crazy. What he begins to do does not help. He starts making a clicking noise with his mouth, and then one sheep out of the whole flock comes out and gets food from this man’s hand. He shoos it back.
Cool… but he wasn’t done. He makes a second noise that was completely different from the first, and a second sheep comes out. Same thing–it came, got food from the shepherd, and then was sent back. That proceeded to happen five times.
I run back to Marian’s car and tell him the story. He laughs, “Eddie, this typical from Romania, he has been working with those sheep from when they were born.” Wow wow wow did I start to get revelation on what I just witnessed.
I know that God speaks. He speaks to you and me. And when he speaks to me it will sound and look completely different than when he speaks to you. When God speaks, He calls us into life. I see that man in the field as God, and we are his sheep.
That shepherd man had a distinct way of communicating and calling his sheep to come to him and get food from his hand, just as God has a distinct way of communicating to me.
Though it may not be the sound I think is the coolest or the time I think it should happen, the end result is always the same. It’s life. Every sheep that man called got the same amount of food. So why am I so quick to compare my calling or sound to yours? I am getting the same thing you are–LIFE! Life in abundance.
So, one more revelation from this experience–I have been struggling with authority recently. A shepherd is the sheep’s authority. He provides and protects. While there may be sheep in the flock that are bigger, know the routine, and may be able to lead the way without getting out of line, they all still have one authority–the shepherd.
As some of the sheep feel like they are following the bigger, smarter, and cooler sheep, the reality is they are actually following the Shepherd. I have to realize I am not following the authority that is placed in my life, I’m following God and his path.
Matthew 8:12–What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
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