The Good Shepherd and Good Shepherding
Conversation #8 - The Good Shepherd and Good Shepherding
Ministering to a world of grief while immersed in our own pain and loss.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND GOOD SHEPHERDING
How does our communion with the Good Shepherd enable us to be good shepherds? We might think first about his focus on us. How does he shepherd us? How do we get out of his way to let him? He is always with us. He embraces, loves, encourages, forgives, draws us to be more like him, never gives up on us, and never lets go. Being on the receiving end of his shepherding ought to make us more like him in our shepherding of others.
How might we define the essence of shepherding? We should give ourselves permission to think about it … start at ground zero and build back carefully.
The essence of being a shepherd almost begs for redefinition in this performance-based, tradition-bound culture in which we’re immersed. I’m not a fast learner, but I think people like me might have an edge. Living in a different country, culture, and language for 40 years forced me to think outside the American box I grew up in. Transitioning back here after that much time has not been easy. You do a lot of stuff here that you assume to be foundational and universally accepted. I often see the same stuff as not necessarily normal… sometimes idiosyncratic—not to say weird. (A bit more about this in the next section…)
I want to define the essence of shepherding as watching Jesus do in others what he is doing in us. For starters, it was never meant to be about us in the first place. Our losses are not meant to subtract from our witness for the Gospel. On the contrary, God means for them to mature the uniqueness of our witness as we touch other lives with our calming trust in him, our undying hope, and our full assurance of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Which direction are we pointing? Nostalgia is “a longing/yearning/pining for the past.” We probably all know people who end up stuck in their swamp of grief…wallowing… shut down. Their loss seems to be their stumbling block. We have a decision to make here. We can nurture the nostalgia and long for something—or someone—we lost. Or, we can embrace our God-given challenge:
The work of the Spirit would convert our swamp of nostalgia into fuel for our nurturing of others.
We are an accumulation of life experiences, losses, and pain that make our witness unique. Our words can be meaningful to others in their seasons of loss—not just for assuaging their sorrow—but also for helping them see that their grief journey has a purpose… very much like ours. Everyone is called amid their grief to come alongside others who need the hope our Gospel brings.
Talk about mentoring and discipleship! Now, we have a true vision of disciples coming to maturity… of people finding their way through deep personal pain to a place of selfless ministry to others, of broken, grieving people finding renewed hope and usefulness in the Kingdom.
Is that not what the essence of shepherding should look like?