the Good Shepherd

Sheep are dumb animals. They fail to listen. They push forward without any regards for what dangers are staring them in the face. It's no accident to read Jesus (and just about everyone else) calling God's people sheep. We do plenty of the same things sheep do. It takes a very skilled shepherd to lead a herd of sheep. He must know the terrain, the possible dangers, and the sheep under his care. Thankfully we have a shepherd who fulfills all those requirements and then some. The tenth chapter of John vividly describes just how good our Shepherd is. He "lays down his life for the sheep" (v.11). He "calls his own sheep by name and leads them" (v.3). He makes his voice known to the sheep (v.4). He saves and gives pasture to his sheep (v.9). He doesn't stop until he has brought all his sheep into the fold (v.16). Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd. There is no other.

Sheep only want one thing: food. If a sheep is provided with plenty of grass to feed on, it is content to stay near the shepherd. A good shepherd removes this want leaving the sheep without any other wants. The well-known Psalm 23 starts off with "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." As John just described, Jesus satisfies the lone want of the sheep. In Jesus we have our food (and I am not talking in the physical sense). As Jesus told His disciples after meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me" (John 4:34). In Christ, we, His sheep, are given food. God has revealed His will for us in the pages of Scripture. His will for all of us is to live a life of obedience and worship before Him every day of our lives. This is what Christ said in Mark 12:30; "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength...You shall love your neighbor as yourself." With the clarity and abundance of this food, we should be able to echo David's statement; "I shall not want."

But we (or at least I) don't. Read the next four verse of the Psalm to see how every need we have is also satisfied in our Good Shepherd. "He makes me lie down in green pastures (rest). He leads me beside still water (peace). He restores my soul (strength). He leads me in path of righteousness for his name's sake (security)." (vs. 2-4, notes mine). The list goes on with the rest of the Psalm. David is showing how there is no place for any wants in the presence of our Shepherd, both now and for all eternity. So why do we (again I) fill our hearts with loads of meaningless wants? They bog us down, preventing us from enjoying the blessings of our Good Shepherd. They make us wander along the edges of cliffs, enter into the wolves's den, and fall headlong into the tar pits. Our wants deceive us into thinking there is something else to be had outside the fold of the Shepherd. And we give in. We begin searching in vain.

Before his beautiful exposition on the grace of Jesus Christ, Paul, in Ephesians, praised our God because He "has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (1:3). All our spiritual needs and wants (which far outweigh any of the physical) are met in Christ. We have nothing more we could possible need. In Psalm 84, we are told God also cares for and meets our physical needs. "No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly" (v. 11). If this is true again I ask, why do we wander away in search of what we already possess in the presence of our Shepherd?

One month in, India is a daily test of my desire to remain in the presence of my Good Shepherd. The same test faces me back home, but here it's not as easily avoided. My physical needs have nothing to do with my staying in the pasture. They are daily met in abundance by the grace and goodness of God demonstrated through the gifts of friends back home and generosity of Sanjay and his family. In regards to those, I can gladly say "I shall not want." The spiritual needs are where I flounder. At times, what I am feeding on doesn't seem to satisfy. I want more, but I am unwilling to wait for God's timing (as He often likes to give when we need or aren't ready). I begin to flirt with the areas of danger. God's voice calls me back, but I don't always listen or have any desire to do so. I hunt for what God already has given me in places where it can't be found. Instead of David's declaration I find myself declaring "I have more wants."

I want to be satisfied with the food my Father has given me. I do not want to leave the fold. I want to love the Lord my God above all else. I want to love others above myself. For some reason, I lose satisfaction with this menu. It's like the taste grows old. The reality is the taste does not grow old. It is new every morning. My heart is what grows old and stale. As I obsess about my nonexistent (because that's really what they are) wants, I am missing the reality all my desires already being quenched in Christ. I want the reality of Christ as my all to be the driving force behind my staying in His fold. For whether I recognize it or not David truthfully stated in Psalm 16:5, "The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup." I pray for my heart to know (and trust) Christ (my portion) to be what He is already is.