Sheep Are What?
Stupid.
Very stupid.
For those of you that don't know, I was, a few years ago, a junior high sponsor at my church's youth group. What we call "sponsor" you might know as "counselor" or something of that nature. I worked with all of the kids but junior high was my focus. I was doing it for the wrong reasons (like just to stay with the familiar fun of youth group) but that's another entry.
Pastor Gregg has asked me if I would consider returning.
I gave it a trial run last Wednesday and had a great time. Not because I was again in the company of free-spirited youth and all that accompanies them, but because I have things to offer them. I've had experiences between the last time and now that have reshaped who I am. No, that's not right. They removed the layers of the world that have caked on through the years to reveal parts of the man underneath. The man that God created in His image. Adam. Me.
Two nights down and I love these kids already. This is not to say that the road ahead will be easy or that demonstrating God's love to them will be a scoop of ice cream (piece of cake is too cliche for me). Dark and difficult times lie ahead. I know this. It's part of life. But I'd like to, Lord willing, be there with and for these kids during those times in both my life and their own. The amazing thing is that not only can they learn from me, but I from them.
Take tonight for instance.
Tonight's lesson was on the analogy of Jesus being the shephard and us being the sheep. Sheep are, as we learned this evening (though I knew already), stupid. They will eat themselves into lostness. Meaning they will focus on nothing but the grass in front of them until they've eaten themselves away from the flock without a clue as to how they got there. One of the people on the DVD we watched said a sheep once rean into her car. Not that it was standing in the road and she hit it. She had stopped at this point and the sheep just ran right into it.
We began, in small group, discussing the analogy and how it applies. How we as humans, with our finite understanding and severely limited comprehension, are represented by the sheep. We'll indulge ourselves into lostness.
That's why we need a shephard.
That's where Jesus comes in. He's the shephard caring about the entire flock's wellbeing. And not just as a whole but as individual sheep. He provides for our needs all day long.
One of the kids conveyed that he sometimes feels abandoned. Where is God in all this if my prayers aren't answererd? How can I believe in an invisible God when He hasn't helped me out yet? These are all good questions and to use the lesson (both to give the conversation some focus and because it applied), I refered to the shephard.
Sometimes, when the sheep are extra stubborn, the shephard will literally hit them with his staff. WHACK! I'm not a sheep but I'm sure that hurts. But if they didn't get that whack; if they didn't receive that pain, they may have continued on with what they were doing, resulting in a greater pain or perhaps even death. So there's pain. But sometimes it's God pointing us in the direction of safety. Because we were too stupid to see the big picture. All we see is the grass in front of us.
We are the sheep and He is the shephard.
We are stupid and by His infinite wisdom are we lead.
That is if we choose to follow it. Though we are "stupid" and our knowledge is incredibly limited, we are still able to make a choice. Do we go out on our own into lostness and become our own guide? Or do we follow the shephard and trust His direction?
After just a few moments on the evening's scheduled topic, the kids asked some unexpectedly deep questions.
What happens when you die?
Is God the same always or does He change?
What happens when the world ends?
Why did Jesus die for our sin?
It was amazing to go from last week's fairly quiet small group to this week's big discussion. We were supposed to stay on subject (the sheep analogy) but these questions could not go unanswered. So, James (the other sponsor with me) and I answered as many and as best as we could with our limited sheep's knowledge.
They are such great kids. They asked wonderful questions and gave answers I wouldn't expect from someone in junior high (that doesn't even go to church). They are seeking and learning. They're growing and discovering. They're yearning for the truth; for something solid to put their faith into. This world is far too fickle for that. And they know it.
I'm looking forward to my time with these kids.
Very stupid.
For those of you that don't know, I was, a few years ago, a junior high sponsor at my church's youth group. What we call "sponsor" you might know as "counselor" or something of that nature. I worked with all of the kids but junior high was my focus. I was doing it for the wrong reasons (like just to stay with the familiar fun of youth group) but that's another entry.
Pastor Gregg has asked me if I would consider returning.
I gave it a trial run last Wednesday and had a great time. Not because I was again in the company of free-spirited youth and all that accompanies them, but because I have things to offer them. I've had experiences between the last time and now that have reshaped who I am. No, that's not right. They removed the layers of the world that have caked on through the years to reveal parts of the man underneath. The man that God created in His image. Adam. Me.
Two nights down and I love these kids already. This is not to say that the road ahead will be easy or that demonstrating God's love to them will be a scoop of ice cream (piece of cake is too cliche for me). Dark and difficult times lie ahead. I know this. It's part of life. But I'd like to, Lord willing, be there with and for these kids during those times in both my life and their own. The amazing thing is that not only can they learn from me, but I from them.
Take tonight for instance.
Tonight's lesson was on the analogy of Jesus being the shephard and us being the sheep. Sheep are, as we learned this evening (though I knew already), stupid. They will eat themselves into lostness. Meaning they will focus on nothing but the grass in front of them until they've eaten themselves away from the flock without a clue as to how they got there. One of the people on the DVD we watched said a sheep once rean into her car. Not that it was standing in the road and she hit it. She had stopped at this point and the sheep just ran right into it.
We began, in small group, discussing the analogy and how it applies. How we as humans, with our finite understanding and severely limited comprehension, are represented by the sheep. We'll indulge ourselves into lostness.
That's why we need a shephard.
That's where Jesus comes in. He's the shephard caring about the entire flock's wellbeing. And not just as a whole but as individual sheep. He provides for our needs all day long.
One of the kids conveyed that he sometimes feels abandoned. Where is God in all this if my prayers aren't answererd? How can I believe in an invisible God when He hasn't helped me out yet? These are all good questions and to use the lesson (both to give the conversation some focus and because it applied), I refered to the shephard.
Sometimes, when the sheep are extra stubborn, the shephard will literally hit them with his staff. WHACK! I'm not a sheep but I'm sure that hurts. But if they didn't get that whack; if they didn't receive that pain, they may have continued on with what they were doing, resulting in a greater pain or perhaps even death. So there's pain. But sometimes it's God pointing us in the direction of safety. Because we were too stupid to see the big picture. All we see is the grass in front of us.
We are the sheep and He is the shephard.
We are stupid and by His infinite wisdom are we lead.
That is if we choose to follow it. Though we are "stupid" and our knowledge is incredibly limited, we are still able to make a choice. Do we go out on our own into lostness and become our own guide? Or do we follow the shephard and trust His direction?
After just a few moments on the evening's scheduled topic, the kids asked some unexpectedly deep questions.
What happens when you die?
Is God the same always or does He change?
What happens when the world ends?
Why did Jesus die for our sin?
It was amazing to go from last week's fairly quiet small group to this week's big discussion. We were supposed to stay on subject (the sheep analogy) but these questions could not go unanswered. So, James (the other sponsor with me) and I answered as many and as best as we could with our limited sheep's knowledge.
They are such great kids. They asked wonderful questions and gave answers I wouldn't expect from someone in junior high (that doesn't even go to church). They are seeking and learning. They're growing and discovering. They're yearning for the truth; for something solid to put their faith into. This world is far too fickle for that. And they know it.
I'm looking forward to my time with these kids.
posted by Still Daddy at 9:33 PM
1 Comments:
A lama spit at me when I was little because I was feeding other animals and not him. I guess he was jealous. So yeah, how 'bout those sheep! Exciting entry! Woo!
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