I asked Nancy what to write. She said to write what I had learned Monday. I said I didn’t want to review the day, didn’t what to be reminded. And then I realized that I probably needed to stop and listen.
Hope’s going to Central Europe this summer for a couple weeks. She’ll be working with some high school students from the US and a bunch of kids from there. She asked some people for money to help with the trip. She found out on Monday that almost everything is covered and they don’t leave until July.
I wanted a bicycle. With warm weather coming, I wanted to put wheels under my stationary riding. On Sunday I looked at one at an estate sale. I came home, told Nancy I was going to get it. And then I said, “Nope. Don’t know why, but I’m not going.” Ten minutes later, Andrew called to see if I was going to be home for 30 minutes. A friend dropped off Andrew’s old bike.
I got an email that had me wrestling, struggling with how to respond, struggling with an old sense of failure. It was hacking away at me. Even as I was remembering some teaching from Philippians I had been doing just a couple days ago, I was unable to apply what I so confidently say to others to my own heart. Until I did.
I listened to a 25 year old podcast while driving to get Hope. What new followers of Jesus need, said LeRoy Eims, is love and protection. Before they need rules, before they need scolding or expectations that they should immediately figure out everything that the church hasn’t been able to do right for the past 2000 years, they need love. And explanations.
So what did you learn on Monday?
300 words a day 
rhatch
Jon, this is exactly what I thought about on Monday. In the homily from Father Paul, he told a wonderful story from when he served as a hired hand on a farm in Kansas. He was sent out to get a sheep who had left the area it was supposed to be in.
It was getting dark, so time was of the essence.
It was not where it was supposed to be there, and he knew that.
He was armed with those two truths and the superiority of knowing them and the perception that the sheep was, well…not as smart as he.
As he came upon it at first slowly, rope in hand, he lunged at it, missed and spooked the sheep.
He then tried to outsmart it and corner it. He quickly learned that sheep are smarter than he thought and more agile.
As he chased the sheep around armed with the knowledge that it was getting dark and the fact that the sheep was not where it was supposed to be, caring only that he had a job to do, the owner of the sheep emerged from the barn. With a bucket of feed and a lead of rope, the shepherd shook the bucket until the sheep came to him, and gently led him home.
‘Before they need rules, scolding or expectations, they need love’
Aidan and I talked about this for awhile on Sunday. Trying to think of times, when we felt like the sheep, the hired hand and how to be more like the shepherd.
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Jon Swanson
thank you robbie. I think about the shepherd who gently looks for sheep. I think of the sheep that trust the shepherd because they know his voice. and I think about the utter power of a dad talking with his son about these questions.
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Becky McCray
The original purpose of my Friday Brag Basket was to get people to review their week.
I learned that I need to get a LOT more serious about some things I’ve been nearly ignoring.
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Jon Swanson
this reviewing process. I think you’ve tried to tell me about it. I need to remember to remember to review.
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Rich Dixon
I learned that there were podcasts 25 years ago. Who knew that?
I learned that I don’t pay enough attention, because I can’t review my day all that clearly. But I WAS busy…I’m sure I learned something.
I learned, thanks to the great story from “rhatch,” that there are better ways to bring lost sheep home.
Okay, technically I learned this stuff on Monday, but it’s not about rules, right?
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Jon Swanson
actually, the talk was just recorded back then. But I realized that we think some things are newer than they really are. And I learn from reading what you just said, Rich, that maybe I’m too busy to learn. Ouch.
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josephruizjr
Rob, great illustration and lesson thanks for sharing. Becky you and I must be in the same canoe because that is EXACTLY where I am. Been reading George Barna’s book “Maximum Faith” let’s just say there is a lot that needs to be dismantled so some real transformation can take place. I am learning I can’t fix myself but until I realize there is someone who can I’ll just be the sheep – Thank God we have a Shepherd.
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Jon Swanson
dismantling so that there can be transformation. That’s a scary thing.
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rhatch
Jon – Though something that happens quite naturally in the development of a child, just before a burst in development there is that time, when everything else they have learned falls apart for a bit (they don’t eat well, sleep well, irritable) then one day…they are walking.
Intentionally dismantling, that’s another story.
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Glenda Watson Hyatt
This Monday? I learned (or relearned) that life can be messy and painful and yet life goes on.
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