Friday, May 27, 2011

Pitching Your Tent





We have a splendid herding dog named Asher. He naturally always seemed to know how to work the sheep to bring them into the barn when we needed him to do it. Over the winter, however, the sheep were continuously kept in the barn, so Asher's services weren't needed.

During the winter, he satisfied his urge to chase things by chasing cars (inside the confines of our fenced in pasture, of course). He would run back and forth, joyously barking as he spent some of his energy. After the snows melted and the pasture came in, Asher's services were once again needed to bring the sheep into the barn. I loosed him in the back paddock, same as always, but he just stopped and stared at the sheep, dumbfounded. He glanced back and forth between the sheep and me, and eventually trotted back to my side. "Go get them, Asher!" I cried, but he just trotted a few steps in their direction and stopped. It seemed that he trained himself over the course of the winter to only chase things that were moving of their own volition, and not things that required agitation to move. He literally forgot how to herd sheep!

Now, we've begun the grueling task of retraining him to herd the sheep and we're desperately trying to break his habit of chasing cars. When we take him with us during chore time, we correct him every time he tries to slink around toward the front of the garage to indulge his dirty desire. This morning, in particular, I noticed how his butt was by my side, but his mind and will were by the roadside. His gaze was off in that direction and every thirty seconds, his little furry behind would scoot a few more inches toward the corner of the building in the direction of his heart's desire. "Asher!" I exclaimed, "Quit pitching your tent toward Sodom!"

I was stunned by the words that came out of my mouth until I realized what God was trying to say to me. How often do we begrudgingly submit to the Lord, but defy His orders in our hearts in order to look for the first loophole or opportunity to disobey and gratify our own desires?

Genesis 13:12 says,"Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom." This looks like a trivial, geographical issue until we understand what Sodom is and what happens to Lot's heart. Sodom was a depraved city, steeped in iniquity, and nearly ripe for a disastrous judgment from the Lord. Lot set his tent to overlook a city he knew was evil. Years pass, and Lot's not living in a tent anymore-- he's living in a house
in the city of Sodom! Sodom was at this time all the way ripe for it's judgment and Lot had to evacuate in a hurry and bring as much of his family as he could with him! In the meantime that he was there, he managed to stay the most righteous man in the place, but that's hardly saying much. His whole family had become marinated in the culture of Sodom and it affected their hearts.

So here is my issue: the Lord has created us for a specific, useful purpose-- much the same way that the border collie was created to help a shepherd by herding sheep. We can either focus our efforts on a God-given task that is natural to our true anointing, or we can "chase cars" and squander our gifts on our useless, selfish desires. Whichever way we pitch our tent will affect the desires of our hearts. Who is your Lord? Is it your Creator? Or is it your self?

Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 says,"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me."

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