Be a Sheep

This past summer God blessed me with the opportunity to spend two weeks in Nashville, Tennessee, at Belmont University with the Fuge Camps SLA program.  You may have just asked, “What’s Fuge? And what the heck is SLA??”  Here is a short synopsis: Fuge Camps is a Christian summer camp for students grades 7-12 where everything is centered around growing in Christ and serving the community, and SLA(student leadership apprentice) is a program under Fuge where juniors and seniors get to live in the shoes of a Fuge staffer for two weeks in hopes of becoming one in college. Clear as mud, right? Fuge has been a huge passion of mine since the seventh grade, but this past summer was different. During my two exhausting weeks at Belmont, I learned and experienced something about God that I had never realized before: We are sheep, and Christ is our shepherd.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Hannah, everybody knows that. It’s in the Bible!” That was my initial thought when our SLA leader Mallory told us about the sheep thing, but as she began to explain to us why that was so important, everything began to click. Mallory questioned, “Did you guys know that sheep are extremely stupid? Like, for real, look up facts about sheep.” So, we did. Mallory was right. If a sheep is eating over a certain patch of grass, it will continue to eat in that exact same spot, even if there is no more grass left to eat, until the shepherd moves it to another patch. Sheep love to stick with other sheep and do whatever every other sheep is doing. In fact, when one of 1,500 sheep jumped off a cliff in eastern Turkey, the 1,499 left followed him; one by one, jumping off the cliff to their deaths. If you still need confirmation on how dumb sheep are, get this: Sheep are prone to wander. Even if you place them in a safe environment, sheep will eventually wander off to who knows where. If it were not for the keeper of the sheep, the shepherd, constantly watching over and protecting the sheep, all of his sheep would be in hopeless danger, and they couldn’t be useful to society.

“Okay. I get it. Sheep are dumb. How does this apply to me?” Well, I’m glad you asked! You see, we as humans are exactly like sheep. For one, we have a sin problem, and, just like sheep, we will continue to live in our sin until Christ intercedes and moves us away from it. We also tend to follow the crowd. Whatever the world says is cool or necessary for our generation, our flesh desires to be a part of it. Even if it’s jumping off a cliff or into sin, we want to fit in and do what everyone else is doing. We are also directionless. Without Christ as our shepherd, we have no purpose on this earth, and we are left to just fill empty space. It is no exaggeration to say that as Christians, we literally cannot survive without Christ. He is the Great Shepherd, constantly watching over us, but He is not the only one with a big responsibility.

Since Christ is our ultimate guide, we have to rely on Him to keep us safe and to have a plan that’s best for us. “During these next two weeks, you will soon discover that you must rely on God for EVERYTHING,” Mallory told us. In the back of my mind I thought, yeah, okay, I already do that, but when Mallory said everything, she really meant everything. One of the activities we were required to do as a bonding exercise was a high ropes course, but this was not just any ropes course; we were hooked up to a partner, which meant I couldn’t go anywhere until my partner was ready as well, but I didn’t have just one partner. Mallory decided to join our group and go through the course blindfolded. With me at the front, not only did I have to keep my own balance and maneuver my way through the course(keeping in mind that we were at least 40 feet in the air), but I also had to guide Mallory every step after me and make sure my other partner was keeping up with us. Now this was no easy ropes course, and there was one time toward the end of the course where I lost my balance and almost fell over the edge. Well, when I went forward, so did the rest of my team, and we were hanging on for dear life. Just as I was about to give up and fall, Mallory said, “You got this, Hannah. Remember, rely on God for everything.” In that moment, everything she had told me about sheep and relying on God made perfect sense. I realized God was the absolute only one who could keep me from falling off the course, so I put my trust in Him and was able to gather the strength to pull myself back up and finish the course.

I know this is a silly example, but it took me almost falling off a ropes course to realize that I need to rely on God for not only the big things, but also for the small things as well. As the week went on, God presented me with multiple opportunities where I was required to put my complete trust in Him, and through that time, I learned so much about the grace of God. Jesus did not pick a random animal when He said in John Chapter 10, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me… I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus uses a sheep because we are sheep. As our shepherd, Christ does everything for us, even lays down His life, so doesn’t it make sense that we do nothing but trust in Him?

I don’t know what problems you are facing in life right now, but I can tell you that whatever you are going through, big or small, if you put your trust in God and rely on Him to see you through, He will do just that. He is our Great Shepherd, and He will do whatever it takes to protect His sheep from sin and destruction. Have a little faith, and be a sheep.