We Are Sheep

I have always been a religious person; my faith is very important to me. I am active in my church and even though I miss more Sundays than I would like, most of the time you will find me in the pew on a Sunday morning. I find my week is lacking and I am just not as recharged on those weeks that I am not in attendance. I enjoy the sermon and I try hard to pay attention and take the pastor’s words to heart, but too often I find the matters of the week weaseling their way into my little brain and distracting me. Not last Sunday.

The sermon was on the 23^rd psalm, one of my favorite passages even if I often associate it with funerals and sadness. As a sheep guy, it is one that I can easily identify with and one that gives me great comfort when I think about it. If that was not enough the pastor flashed a picture of a cute little lamb on the screen and asked the congregation what we thought when we saw the picture.

The first reaction from the pews was one of what a cute little lamb. Not me, the hardened shepherd came out and I mumbled something under my breath about it looking like a lot of work. I may have said it loud enough that the people around me heard it and started to laugh. Immediately the pastor said something to the effect of most would say the lamb is cute but those who care for sheep would say they are a lot of work.

I am Presbyterian and therefore conditioned to be silent in church, however, I nearly shouted Amen. Nearly, mind you, but I did think about it. The pastor then went on to say that sheep can be dumb, impulsive and mean to each other. Wow, he really did his homework, the urge to Amen him was almost overpowering. I could not wait to hear what the Lord had to say to me through him. This sermon was really hitting close to home.

He went on to describe how sheep were so dumb that they were prone to putting themselves in danger and doing stuff that was harmful to their health because they were not smart enough to know better. This caused a lot more work and worry for the shepherd who had to go out of his way to make sure they did not wonder off, eat the wrong plant or do something else stupid.

Boy was the pastor talking about something that was in my wheelhouse. Just this morning I had opened the gate to the pasture, turning the ewes out on some of the best, most lush brome pasture ever. You know the whole, “He leads me to green pastures” part. Only to have them turn around and charge back to me as I carried a bucket of grain to the steers. Acres of lush green grass and they only wanted the steer feed that probably had things in it that were not good for sheep. Stupid animals, the pastor sure had it right. Sheep are mindless creatures only worried about themselves, even to the point of being harmful and causing me more worry and work.

Then my pastor made his point, we humans are a lot like sheep. Wow was that a low blow, sheep are dumb animals who cannot take care of themselves or make good decisions. We humans would never make bad decisions that would adversely affect our health or put ourselves in harm’s way. We would never be so focused on ourselves that we would wonder right into danger. Most of all, we would never blindly follow the crowd without knowing where we are going. This whole sheep to human comparison is all wrong. Boy, was I glad I had refrained from shouting Amen earlier.

After all, I would never have done like my sheep earlier that morning and turned away from good healthy pasture to try and eat something that, while tastier, maybe wasn’t all that healthy. OK, so the double cheeseburger the night before made that a bad example. I would never mindlessly follow a crowd or put myself in danger like sheep are prone to do. Examples of that came flooding into my thoughts, we won’t go there right now, but rest assured I had an epiphany at that moment.

I am a sheep, a dumb, old, self-serving, mindless sheep. I am prone to putting myself in bad situations and relying on the Good Shepherd to rescue me once again so I can turn right around and do it all over again. What is even worse is that I live and observe this every day but it took the pastor telling me to open my eyes. I would guess that even with this epiphany soon after the sermon, I once again forgot the important things I knew and wondered right back into trouble. Stupid sheep, it’s probably a good thing I have a good and patient Shepherd.