My son woke up at 4 am the next day. Yes, that said 4. He had a booger in his nose. Thankfully he went back to sleep. I on the other hand couldn't. My mind was up and running. Part of it thinking about all of the papers I had to grade and planning Emerson's birthday party. Another part thinking about feeling frustrated with David.
All of a sudden I started thinking about the 23rd Psalm. Had to look that up. I know that the Jesus's prayer in the New Testament has the identifier "The Lord's Prayer" and I thought this prayer had one too. Guess it's just the 23rd Psalm; what a scholar I am! This rambling actually does have connection to my next thought. I only remember bits and pieces of the 23rd Psalm. So in my mind it went....
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want... his rod and his staff they comfort me. Missing a little bit there, right? : )
I couldn't stop thinking about the rod and staff and that they comfort. Upon initial thought, these things seemed more like weapons or something for the shepherd to lean on in the pictures we see of shepherds and not something of comfort. But that's what it says. They provide comfort. They aren't defined as anything else.
Sheep aren't known for being intelligent creatures. I googled sheep and also found out that they have an excellent sense of hearing and need help when they role on their back because they can't get up. More of something I want to laugh at and not something I want to be compared to.
But when I look at the meaning behind it all, I am a little less offended. I am definitely limited in my understanding when I am compared to God and I often need a lot of help because I get myself into a position where I can't get "up" by myself. Alas, I am a sheep.
But sheep have an excellent sense of hearing. This is important. I think that God wants us to know that we can hear him. The problem comes in on our part. Hearing and listening are two different things.
So God wants me to focus on (listen to him about) his rod and his staff and how they comfort. The one thing that I do know about a staff is that a shepherd can use it to gently prod the sheep to go where they need to go and move them from danger. As I thought more about this I felt like God wanted to move me away from dwelling on my frustration with David. It really can cause danger to my relationship with David and honestly does me no good to keep moving in that direction.
There are often times in my life where I sense God gently "prodding" me to go in a different direction. Some of those moments are even documented here on my blog (e.g. Road Rage). I want to be better at responding, at listening to him, because the moments when I do are the moments when I have more peace, I respond better to others and I am a better overall person to be around.
Now, I really want to see a sheep fall over and try to get up...
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