A Few Words About...Sheep (Part 2)

The Bible talks a lot about sheep and shepherds. Do you know about sheep? Sheep are amazing creatures. They may seem dumb, truly stupid even, but they are incredibly resourceful. They may all look like one another, but each one is absolutely unique. They are individual in personality and appearance. Though the differences can be subtle, they are easily recognized by those who spend time with them...shepherds. 

I was reading a blog by a shepherd not too long ago (That’s right, blogging shepherds. Who knew?) and he’s talking about standing at the parts counter of his local tractor dealer, and he overhears a big sheep rancher exclaim, “Heck, every so often one of my sheep just jumps up in the air and dies, Sheep are wimps!” And this really ticks the blogging shepherd off, and so he blogs about it and here’s a portion of what he wrote: 

Contrary to what this man says, I find that sheep are just the opposite of being "wimps". But in defense of this man's attitude they often look that way. If you have a flock of 10,000 sheep, you are an exceptional human to notice the BEGINNING of a sheep's problems. But it is hard to miss the END of a sheep's problem, when they finally give up, and die. 

If you have a small farm flock, and you spend a fair amount of time watching them, you will get to know when something is going wrong. And a lot of the time, it is very subtle. My wife will occasionally say of a particular sheep "it just doesn't look right", which generally means that the sheep is not "acting" right. 

The blogging shepherd continues: Sheep have an amazing tolerance for pain. We humans equate "screaming and crying out in pain" with the expression of pain. If a sheep is injured in an accident, they do not lay there and scream; they get up and hobble off in silence. Sheep are very stoic, when it comes to pain. 

And he says: To understand a sheep, you must keep in mind that they are "lunch" for hungry wolves, coyotes, and other predators, and have survived as a species by NOT showing their pain. A sheep that is sick from a disease, and is weakening, has only one means of protection, and that is to go with the flock, and pretend to be healthy. 

I get something HUGE out of that. See, we’re all like sheep. And in church we have this mindset that says, “I’m beat up, bruised, and battered by life, but I can’t let anyone know it, because they’ll think I’m weak. So I’m just going to go with the flock and pretend that I’m healthy”.

And if no one is paying attention, before long that sheep just “jumps up and dies”. Withdraws from the fellowship. Stops coming and disappears. Goes back to their old way of life. Any number of other things. The tragedy is that they spent all this time in the sheepfold and no one EVER KNEW there was anything wrong. 

Perhaps, like me, you've seen that same scenario play out in church, or you have experienced it first-hand. It's a misguided mindset that says, “Oh, aren’t we a pretty flock of sheep? Infirmity free, sin free, very nearly perfect”. That’s such a dangerous way to live.

The blogging shepherd says of damaged sheep: If you’re at risk of being eaten alive, and have virtually no way to defend yourself, then YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT WHEN YOU ARE INJURED, because the hungry beasts look for those who are weak and injured!

Wow!  Sounds just like us!  It's like we're programmed naturally to keep our mouths shut when there’s stuff going on in our lives because we are afraid of being devoured by hungry beasts.

In the end, if it’s in our honesty and humility and willingness to reveal our weaknesses that healing comes, then it’s a good bet that we need to foster ENVIRONMENTS where people don’t feel they’re going to be devoured when they reveal that they are injured. 

That’s what small groups are all about at Crossroads. Sign up this weekend. More on sheep tomorrow...