Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Luke 10:3 -- On Flock Life

"Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves."
Luke 10:3


Here, Christ is sending out the Seventy to help spread the gospel, and he tells them that they will be like lambs among wolves.  With an analogy like that, what comes to mind?  Wolf supremacy and lamb dinner, right?  And yet we are working towards a world where "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb" (Isaiah 11:6; 2 Nephi 30:12) and "the wolf and the lamb shall feed together" (Isaiah 65:25).  It doesn't mean that the lambs will always succeed in the short term, but in the end, it is the wolves that will learn peace.
I think it is a really good analogy because it tells us who we are, and who we need to be.  Protection is in community and togetherness, and not straying off God's path where we can easily become prey.  It helps us understand that success isn't going to come through conquering and supremacy, but through meekness and kindness and gentleness.  Our strength isn't in our ability to kill, but in our ability to cooperate and unite.  It also shows us the challenge of spreading the gospel.  Some people will always think that life is about who can control, often through fear or intimidation or violence.  And maybe we're going to look like prey walking up to a predator if we try to convince them otherwise.
Some people are going to think that we are sheep in a negative way... not thinking for ourselves or blindly following a shepherd, not having any idea where we are going.   And of course we aren't that.  God encourages us to learn and to gain wisdom, and if we study the gospel, we know exactly what we are choosing.  Even so, we choose to be sheep and not wolves.  We choose to follow God and to no longer attempt life without him.  We choose fleece over fangs. :)  A lot of people are never going to understand that... but we know why.  We've seen and sometimes tried life without God.  We've learned that we don't want to be predators or harm others.  We've learn that we need our Shepherd, and love the flock.  Today, let's go forth as lambs among wolves, and trust in our shepherd.  Let's love, and be adorable, and help each other, and have fun, and show everyone why flock life is the only life. ;)

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