Sometimes, Sheep Bite

Sometimes we break past the stereotypes. Sometimes its fun to pretend those we are reaching, the unchurched & dechurched aren’t like other “church” people. We act like those typical things in ‘other’ churches isn’t going to happen here. And sometimes…that’s true.

The generation we are are seeking has been hurt by the organization we call church. They’ve had expectations unmet. But for the most part, they are just seeking genuine people who are trying to love and chase after Jesus.

Other times though, you get those who may or may not know Jesus but want to belong to a club or organization. To have a place to belong, have moral friends, feel good about themselves and their standing in the world. Sometimes we get those who have been in church for their entire lives and think they know how it should look, function, behave; these tend to be the sheep that bite.

Sheep that bite don’t understand the shepherd. They don’t understand His heart; His love for them; His real purpose in keeping them safe, directed, and shepherded. They lash out when things don’t go like they thought they should. When they fall away and get hurt, they bite. They hurt other people in an attempt to blame their hurt. They know they shouldn’t “blame” the Shepherd so they snip at other sheep.

The gospel is what we are about. We are not about contemporary worship, cool spaces for worship, catchy logos, cutting edge ministries that ‘no one else has thought of’, being tolerant, or hosting a fashion show of the finest looking Christians in town.

But at the same time we are not about ritual. The “we’ve always done ____”, bate and switch, “someone should be doing _____”, its a good idea so we {the pastor or someone else should head up} should be doing. it.

Pastors are stereotyped. Duh. Some good and some bad. Naming and claiming things is a whole lot easier when we start out dreaming up our vision for “the perfect church”. Setting firm on not being the co-dependent pastor and family works great on paper but when those sheep start nipping, can we stand our ground? Will we be able to hold to what we feel God has called our family to? Its oh so hard!

If you cave you feel like you’ve disappointed yourself. If you stand your ground, you feel like you’ve disappointed the sheep. We forget that even the Church of Acts had issues. “Church” should function great…if it didn’t involve people. Evil-hearted, tainted, drenched in sin People.

As just another sheep in the herd trying to help the other sheep find and follow the Shepherd, we have to remember who we are here to please. When our husbands, or we, don’t live up to the expectations we’ve set for ourselves or by others, sometimes, we get bit. Its gonna sting. We may need recovery time. But if we are sticking to God’s plan, it will be worth it!

Everyone will disappoint you at some point if you engage in a relationship. Digging deeper into relationships is where the hard truths come out. Christ was able to love the munching lambs because He saw past the snip. He dug deeper. Jesus found out why they lashed out. Then He finds out the reason behind the reason they lashed out.

See where I’m going? We may not want to hear it but there’s always a deeper story. You will never know everyone’s full history. But as part of the guiding sheep, its our privilege to love like Christ which means digging deeper. Caring longer. Putting on the extra bandages after being bit.

Siting in our needy world of selfishness, pouting about our injuries will only keep us in a downward sucking, all-consuming, mind-entangling, whirlpool of pity that renders us incapable of seeing and meeting Other people’s needs.

Let show this word some crazy love and chase down those biting sheep that should, by the world standards, logically be ‘put down’.