Our society idolizes youth. Young people know what to say, what to wear, and where to go. Young people move quickly and adapt easily. Young people embrace hope and technology and causes. Young people are cool. But as one of our seniors turned 90 this weekend, I was reminded of the many lessons that can only be learned from godly elderly people.
When it comes to helping a grieving friend, nobody wants to say the wrong thing. Nobody wants to make it worse. And the fact is that almost nobody feels confident in navigating such delicate issues. I want to share some of the things I learned from Roslyn Crichton’s booklet, “How to Help Grieving People.”
You can’t short-circuit the process of grief and mourning. To get to the other side, you have to go through it. Otherwise, grief has a way of following you.
Seeing tragedy in his childhood challenged his views about life. Facing tragedy as an adult challenged the values that he lived for. And addressing tragedy in his life has given him the satisfaction that his heart longed for. Let me share three things I learned about tragedy from Sujo John’s life.
Over the past month, we’ve been considering the Bible’s use of shepherd language in making a unique contribution to understanding the role of a leader. The final category that the Bible emphasizes is the seeking heart of a caring shepherd. While negligent shepherds will scatter the flock or be content to make a living from the gathered flock, a good shepherd will risk comfort and safety to seek lost sheep. While the primary applications may be related to church ministry, the implications for relating to disgruntled customers, disillusioned constituents, and prodigal children may be just as relevant.
Authority can be used selfishly, arbitrarily, or cruelly. It can also be used for good. The Bible makes a unique contribution to understanding how a leader’s authority should be used. It shows how to use authority by pointing to a shepherd’s two main tools, the rod and the staff.
If you describe someone as being “very pastoral,” it implies a warm tenderness towards people. And these are qualities that are certainly a part of the shepherd image, but they’re not at the forefront. In fact, if a shepherd spends all his time nuzzling with the cute, little lambs, or binding up the sick ones, the flock will scatter, starve and die. A shepherd is pre-eminently called to lead.
Over a number of weeks, we’re considering the metaphor of the shepherd for understanding how God views leadership. We’ve seen how the idea of a shepherd points to the need for accountability but also compassion. Today, we look at productivity and provision: how a shepherd feeds the sheep.
A key part of a shepherd’s role involves providing water for the flock. This points to a sometimes neglected aspect of leadership today.
We’ve come up with many different titles for leaders today. And the titles matter. But while each of these titles have value, the Bible defines leadership in a unique way that may help people serving in all levels of leadership better understand their task. The primary metaphor that the Bible uses for leadership is the shepherd. Today we consider one of the implications of that metaphor.
