The Narrow Way

Have you ever stopped to think about how confused the world is right now? 🧐 Things that once seemed to be “givens” and “automatics”… aren’t anymore… both in the Church and outside of it…

I brought home a ram lamb the other day as part of a ewe-ram swap. This little guy was raised by his shepherd after his mom rejected him (bottle baby). Unfortunately for him, the main flock was about 20 minutes away from the shepherd’s home, so he raised him with some chickens and turkeys to keep him company. Seems like a good plan, right? 🤷‍♀️

So, I brought him home and set him in with the flock 😌

Instant. Panic. 😱 😳😰

Ram lamb raced around the elctronetting zapping himself a few times while trying to flee from the other sheep. Not long after, he charged the netting and caused it to collapse😬

Hmm 🤔

After catching him, I moved him to a permanent paddock with a few turkeys to keep him safe 🦃 + 🐑

He seemed to settle and be more at home with the turkeys 🙈 They weren’t foreign like the alien-looking giant sheep he just met. I gave him some time before moving the turkeys into the adjacent paddock. I did this so he could still see them, but not eat all of their food 😁 Next, I moved Dolly (my visually impaired sheep) in with him, followed by one of my ram lambs. My hope is that these two wouldn’t be as threatening as the big mamas and he will form a bond with them before trying to join the flock again 🙏

As of today, it’s been a week since bringing him home, and he’s still struggling…

Why?

Ram lamb doesn’t know that he’s a sheep 😮

Think about that for a second.

This animal, with a fairly simple mind and some measure of instinct, has no idea who he is. Born a sheep, raised by humans, cohabitating with poultry, he is unaware of how to be a sheep. Rather than grazing and frolicking among a flock, he prefers to be near the turkey gate waiting for a chance to return to his bird friends 😔

This is the state of so many people around us, both inside and outside of the Church: unaware of or terrified of what we were created to be and trying to be something more comfortable/familiar instead.

Something I’ve observed over nearly 2 decades in the faith is that many Christians don’t actually know how to be a Christian 🤔 No really 😬 I’m not trying to sound puffed up as if I’m some perfect example, I’m not 🫣 However I will say that I have an idea of what it looks like by now. I’ve seen mature Christianity demonstrated powerfully both abroad and in the US, and had a glimpse of it by reading the testimonies of old saints. So when I say we don’t know how to be Christian’s, I’m not fully excluding myself. What I am saying is that for many, American Christian culture looks a little like a ram lamb outside of a turkey gate. Overall, we—the Church—are lacking in maturity. We might be Christians, but we are missing some big pieces about who we really are.

Unfortunately, many Christians struggle because they’ve actually never seen mature Christianity modeled 😔 So it’s understandable. They’ve never been discipled so they don’t know how to make disciples. Many believers have been churched, but have little idea of what life as a Christian can look like.

Have we had a heart-to-heart with our Shepherd like Moses? Are we ready to call down fire like Elijah, or march around the walls of Jericho for the 7th time by faith? Have we experienced the power of the Presence of God leading to conviction, rejoicing, or even healing? Have we cast out demons, spoken in new tongues, or preached to the lost? Are we filled to overflowing and baptized in the Holy Spirit or just barely able to prioritize opening our Bibles daily?

If the answer is “no”, that we aren’t there yet, BUT we are doing the right things (reading our Bibles regularly and rubbing elbows with some good characters), then we can be assured it’s only a matter of time 🙌

But if we haven’t read the Bible for ourselves and don’t have good *mature* influences around us, how can we expect to know how to look and act like a mature Christian? 🤔

We can’t.🤷‍♀️

It’s no different than my ram lamb. He doesn’t have the option to read a manual on how to be a sheep, but the influence he has had—hasn’t been proper so he’s limited and confused. He’s existed on a shred of instinct sprinkled with the influence of man and poultry.

For so many believers, they simply haven’t been confronted by a flock of big mama sheep before 🫣😱 They have existed with the turkeys (the unsaved or lukewarm believers) and been comfortable. Safe.

I think for many of us, when we are first confronted by a genuine *mature* Bible believing Christian—there is a bit of a panic 😱 and maybe a dash of excitement 😃 The testimony of living faith can be almost overwhelming as we look at the model compared to ourselves 😰

If that’s you, don’t panic, don’t charge the electro-netting, lol. 😂 God knows. Your Shepherd sees the gap. And just like me with my ram lamb, He will come scoop you up and guide you along. You don’t become a new creation over night, and it takes time to have a renewed mind.

“ therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Cor 5:17

“ do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rom 12:2

For my ram lamb, I picked him up and set him in a more comfortable setting, but only for a time. I didn’t leave him there, because at some point, I need my flock together, not separate. So for a time, he was with a few gentle sheep and had some turkeys nearby.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be and want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Ps 23

I think it’s the same for us. If we truly desire to be mature, we must humble ourselves and allow God to lead us out of what feels comfortable and through what feels foreign. Our job is to hold on and trust, because it’s not easy. I’ve been there, it can be down right scary and lonely.

At least, this is how God did for me. I know that after my dream of Jesus returning I followed the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I read the Bible and allowed it to wash over me and slowly, in time I stopped wanting to hang out with the turkeys…slowly I didn’t want to eat the turkeys food….slowly, I started to become who God made me to be and I desired company that was the same…

“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Cor 15:33)

What’s confusing is that sometimes even our “Christian company” isn’t the best company 😕 There’s a saying “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” We like to think that people of the same faith are all equal, but they’re not. Some will challenge us and call us higher (iron sharpening iron) while others, who have themselves often unknowingly settled for less, will actually numb us and call us back toward mediocrity and carnality. I don’t like saying this, but I’ve found it to be true in my own life 🤷‍♀️ I am roughly as strong as the believers I spend time with coupled with the amount of time I spend in prayer/reading my Bible. Period. If the believers we are around aren’t mature, we either never grow or we will gradually slide back into numbness. To grow out of this, don’t be surprised if there’s a period of isolation…just you and your Bible…a ram lamb hiding off in the corner trying to figure out what’s going on…

I think for my ram lamb that over time, after some space, with the right company, he will figure it out 🙃 His cravings will change, his attitude and behaviors will shift. And while it won’t be instantaneous, I think one day I’ll look out there and no longer see an identity crisis, but a mature sheep grazing with the flock—unafraid, bold, ready to protect his girls 😊

My prayer for every Christian is that God will help us to see who we really are/should be. That as we approach Him and read His word, it would be like the mirror James described and we would NOT walk away and forget the Truth of what we’ve seen. I pray we set the standard high, not on the immature believers we may be around, but on Jesus and the Apostles, and great men and women of faith from today who have refused the erosion that comes from culture.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by 💚