One Good Leader

"If you reprove a scoffer, he will hate you; if you reprove a wise man, he will love you. The fear of Adonai is the beginning of all wisdom, and knowledge of holy ones is understanding. If you are wise, your wisdom helps you; but if you scoff, you bear your consequences alone." (Proverbs 9:8&10&12)

Recently, I was at a church function for youth. Out of maybe 40 adolescents, 5 looked as if they had come to genuinely worship the Lord while the others were in various stages of being horribly distracting. The groups of girls were segregated into little cliques that were chatting together. The boys were wandering about doing various things. Some were slouched in chairs, some were standing on the furniture, and still some others were tossing a football around--all during the time that the worship team was playing. After about 10 minutes of this chaos, one irate girl got up on stage and rebuked the whole crowd. "For ONCE," she said, "Can we please just WORSHIP?!" After that, the caddywumpus died down and it began to be a normal (yet still very noisy) time of worship for the youth.

As a farmer, when I saw that girl get on stage to rebuke the crowd, I saw a common episode I encounter with my sheep. The way it often goes with my sheep, is that when they break into a run, it's pure chaos. They run-- directionless--and into each other and fences and even sides of barns. Usually this furry mosh pit continues until one sheep decides to make sense and actually think while running. As soon as this one sheep straightens itself out and seems to know what it's doing, the rest of the sheep follow it. In the end, people are no different. As soon as we find one person that is willing to rise above the crowd and direct it, we are inspired and follow that one person who seems to know what they're doing. All it takes is one good leader.

It's no accident that the Bible compares people to sheep. One of the most common passages quoted is Isaiah 53:6 which says, "We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way." Obviously, we probably remind God of sheep. Jesus said to Peter that if he loved him, he would feed his sheep (John 21). As sheep so prone to wandering, we need a good shepherd. Alas, God knew this, so he provided one and his name is Jesus. One good leader, stepping into the chaos, restoring order to the flock. At the risk of sounding condescending, I will say that the smart sheep will follow the one who knows the way.

"Yes, indeed! I tell you, the person who doesn't enter the sheep-pen through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the one who goes in through the gate is the sheep's own shepherd. This is the one the gate-keeper admits, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out. After taking out all that are his own, he goes on ahead of them; and the sheep follow him because stranger's voices are unfamiliar to them... I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:1-5&11)