The Lone Sheep

John 10:11–18

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep
• A hired man ... sees a wolf coming and flees
• I know my own and my own know me
• no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord

Applying the Word to My Life:
Today's reading takes us to a pasture, but it isn't the peaceful place we like to think of — we have a wolf to worry about and a flock of sheep that need protection. Jesus describes two kinds of people who watch sheep.

The hired hand does the job. He shows up, tends the flock, collects his wage. But when the wolf comes, he runs. The sheep are not his. He does not have a reason to stay. The wolf does not create the hired hand's problem. It reveals it. What looked like faithfulness — showing up, doing the job — turns out to have had conditions on it the whole time.

The shepherd does not run. The difference is not that he is braver. The sheep are his. This isn't a transaction, this is something deeper. The sheep belong to the shepherd and the shepherd's connection goes deeper than a financial transaction.

The relationship goes both ways. The shepherd is not just responsible for the sheep. He knows them. They know him. When the wolf comes, that is not a calculation. It is just: I stay. Jesus brings this image to our relationship with him. He will always stay, but will we?

I know I have not always stayed.

Early in my life my faith looked more like the hired hand. Sin would come, or just the pull to be lazy about my faith, and I would drift. The challenge and my failure was enough to push me away. Sin wounds the relationship, but pulling away makes it worse. Now you have a wound and you have added distance on top of it. The connection that will give you strength is the one you walked away from. The time you most needed to be close was exactly when you chose to be somewhere else. In other words I was there when things were going well, when prayer felt like something, when I was getting something out of it. When it stopped feeling that way, I found other things to do.

That is a transactional relationship, not belonging and definitely not love.

It does not feel like a decision. It just happens. One day you realize you have been somewhere else for a while and you are not sure when it started.

The call of Christianity is not just to be received by the shepherd. It is to be conformed to him.

Conforming our lives to Christ means taking on his posture, not just his protection. The shepherd does not stay because he ran the numbers and decided it was worth it. He stays because the sheep are his and that is that. No exit built in. No conditions attached.

What that looks like for us is not always dramatic. Sometimes staying just means showing back up. Sinning and then going back to scripture even though it might sting. Coming back to prayer when it is dry. Sitting with the discomfort instead of filling it with something else. Not because the feeling returned. Because we know we are his.

The hired hand's faith has a limit. The shepherd's does not. Jesus knows us fully and stays anyway — our response is to stay with him. Not because it is always easy. Because this is where we belong.

My Response for Today:
Today I will find one place in my life where I am drifting and bring it to Jesus.