10. Shepherds…
As we come to the last post for this journal I reflect back through the past four years when my journey began first with my redundancy, then my laryngeal cancer, then the Covid pandemic. I thought I was resilient. I have shared my battles with you and in our last sessions I talked about recovery, restoration, acceptance. But, in many ways, I have been fooling myself. In many ways, I have been trudging on down the road thinking I’m going okay. And, in doing so, I have depleted my reserves to the extent that after returning from a wonderful trip to France for a family reunion I collapsed in a heap in my doctor’s surgery.
John Eldredge in his book, Resilience, puts it this way:
We have an astonishing capacity to rally in the face of calamity and duress. We rally and rally, and then one day we discover there’s nothing left. Our soul simply says, I’m done; I don’t want to do this anymore, as we collapse into discouragement, depression, or just blankness of soul.
You don’t want to push your soul to that point.
But everything about the hour we are living in is pushing our souls to that very point. Some folks are nearly there.
John Eldredge, Resilience
I am there, maybe you are as well….
So how do we continually build reserves, day by day, to avoid reaching burn-out? By discovering that resilience comes from God, and we can find it and replenish our reserves as we come to him every day, pause, and allow him to refill our depleted tanks. Psalm 23 is so familiar to us all that we can just read through it blindly and miss the many hidden treasures that speak to how God wants to care for us, refresh and replenish us. In particular verse 1 holds the key to building resilience – like the humble sheep we need to let go and let our Shepherd take care of us:
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.
Psalm 23:1
Wow, read that again:
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.
Psalm 23:1
My French grandmother lived in a southwest region of France called Les Landes for her last years. The area is very sandy and not very arable but great for pine trees which are forested for their resin, pulpwood for paper and panels, and to make planks. A lesser-known fact about these pine forests is that up until the 20th century sheep grazed amongst the trees. They were minded by shepherds who walked through the trees on 5-foot wooden stilts so that they could see and protect their sheep from wolves.
Shepherding is one of the world’s oldest occupations – shepherds visited Jeus at his birth, many of the Old Testament characters were shepherds including David who wrote psalms whilst shepherding his father’s sheep. Wikipedia describes the shepherd’s role as a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards his flocks of sheep and they still exists in many parts of the world today.
The Lord is my shepherd…
- He tends me – cares for me, pays attention to me. Every day of my life I can trust Jesus to be by my side making sure that I don’t slip or fall. I can sleep, rest, secure in the knowledge that he is always present. Psalm 121 echoes God’s amazing care for each of us both day and night:
I look up to the mountains — does my help come from there? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The LORD himself watches over you! The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.
Psalm 121:1-6
- He herds me – many shepherds have dogs who are trained to help the shepherd keep the flock together making sure that none strays away and gets lost. This is where God uses his church of whom Jesus is the High Priest:
So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.
Hebrews 4:14
Through him we can support each other in these difficult and discouraging times to stay close to him. In many ways we are his sheepdogs, each of us priests in his kingdom here on earth:
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests… for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2: 5,9
- He feeds me – we all need to nourish our physical bodies with food every day. I love food and eating the beautiful meals my husband cooks up for me every day, but I also must come to God’s Word for spiritual and mental nourishment to replenish my soul:
“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink- even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk- it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food.
Isaiah 55:1-2
- He guards me – The shepherd in The Landes region guarded his sheep from the 5-foot height of his stilts so that he could see them at all times and keep them safe from the wolves. The shepherd in the Bible lies down at the gate of the pen once all the sheep have been herded in to protect them from wild animals. Jesus is my shepherd, laying down his life to keep me safe in his kingdom away from the prowling enemy:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep…I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
John 10:11,14-16
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need – he tends me, herds me, feeds me, guards me each and every moment of each and every day. I rally to his call as a sheep does to the call of its shepherd. I am stronger, more prepared for the battle that may lie ahead:
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength
Philippians 4:13
Prayer: Lord, I trust you to be my Shepherd, to provide for all that I need whatever it be. Strengthen me, protect m, for the battles that lie ahead.
Amen
Action: Today, right now, just sit in the presence of your shepherd, let him tend to you; herd you back into his Kingdom if you have strayed; feed you from his Word; and provide you with all the protection you need as you go out into your day.
Journal your thoughts…
