Let me give you a little background on how I became a shepherd.
Each day of the week, one of our seven teams is assigned kitchen duty. Kitchen duty includes helped Matilda prepare our meals and set up the dining room for everyone, cleaning up after meals, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the bathrooms, picking up trash in the yards, tidying our meeting room, taking out the garbage to the dumpster, and shepherding the sheep.
At the camp we’re working at these first two weeks, they have sheep. The sheep stay in their gated area for the most part, but sometimes George (the man in charge) sends them to an area upfront that has two picnic tables and a bunch of trees. The only time they need to be really watched is when they’re up front.
On Tuesday, my team was on kitchen duty. After we cleaned up breakfast, the sheep were moved to the front. I volunteered to be the shepherd. Little did I know it would last a full five hours (and they’d all end up with names), but I decided to use it as a Bible study. I wanted to know what shepherding is all about since the Lord is our shepherd; what does it really mean and how does a shepherd interact with his flock?
“‘You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.” Ezekiel 34:28
Who knew sheep were so frustrating and exhausting? It’s a good thing we serve a good Father, otherwise our flock would quickly become tomorrow’s dinner.
“Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.” Psalm 100:3
The main thing I had to do while watching them was make sure they didn’t eat the bark on the trees or shred it off with their horns. To stop them, you “just have to clap your hands at them.” Easy, right?
Man. Sheep sure do love trees. And not listening.
Chip was my biggest troublemaker. He just couldn’t keep himself away from the bark! I’d clap my hands at him and he wouldn’t stop so I’d have to go over to him and discipline a little bit. I’d turn around and walk back to my picnic table, sit down and look up, and he’d already be at it again. He knew he shouldn’t, but he kept going back to his same tree as soon as he thought he was in the clear.
How often are we like Chip? God tells us not to do something so we stop, but we do it again and God has to discipline us. Then, we think we’ve paid our repercussions, so we do it again even though we know it’s wrong. Then we get stuck in this cycle of sin and punishment. Why can’t we just listen to God?
Bartholomew was another sheep I had to watch. He thought he was sneaky. When I was watching him he was well behaved and just at the grass. He was putting on an act while I was focused on him. But, he would watch me, and when he thought I wasn’t paying attention to him, he’d start eating the bark, all the while keeping his eyes on me. We’d make eye contact and he would stop. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be doing it, but he’d wait until he was caught to stop.
How often are we like Bartholomew? We put on an act, this false self, when we think God is focused on us, like at church or even just public in general, but when we’re alone at night in our room and we think we’re all alone and God isn’t watching us, we sin. We know we shouldn’t, but we do it anyway. We wait to stop sinning or even just confess the sin until we feel God’s presence (hello, holy spirit [often through that lovely guilty conscience]), or when we get disciplined yet again.
The other sheep followed their example, too. They would see them eating the bark and think it was okay, or they just did it because Chip and Barthy were doing it, or even just did it because they were tempted. They knew it was wrong, but they did it anyway. They jumped on the bandwagon and joined the cool kids who ate bark. They were near the bark so they thought they’d just have a little taste, no harm no foul. These sheep were in the wrong and got disciplined too.
How often are we like the other sheep? How often do we sin because we see other people doing it, so it must be okay. Those people haven’t been blasted down by God because of their sin, so it’s all good. Or we’re at a party and want to be cool like everyone else so we partake in the sin, we jump on the bandwagon as well. Sometimes, we just fall into temptation because we’re in a situation that makes it easy to sin.
Then I had Susanna, Grace, and Duchess. The three good sheep. These sheep were well behaved. Sure, they ate the bark sometimes, and were disciplined for it, but for the most part they stuck to the grass. They stayed together and mostly stayed in the middle of the field away from the trees. They kept each other accountable and each influenced the others.
Can we try to be like the three good sheep? Obviously, because we are human and sin is in the flesh, we’re going to screw up. We’re going to make mistakes and sin from time to time. One way to stay out of sin, is to remove yourself from the situation if you can, keep yourself away from the temptation. If you know you have a problem with alcohol, don’t go to a bar and try to just have a coke. Don’t go somewhere where the temptation is just too much. Stay in a community of believers who will help keep you accountable, who will be a positive influence on your walk with God. Surround yourself with Godly people who you can go to when you’re having a hard time or when you feel the temptation of sin-they will help you get through it.
I’m not saying don’t be friends with people who aren’t Christians, but make sure you have a body of believers. You become who you spend your time with, and my three good sheep mostly stayed together apart from the others.
I’m going to mess up, you’re going to mess up sometimes, and that’s okay. Thankfully, we have a forgiving God who loves us more than we can understand. We just need to try to be like the good sheep, we need to give God our best, but sometimes, sheep happens.
