Reflections on the Road: Week Eleven

Reflections on the Road

Week Eleven

Corrected by the Good Shepherd

Focus Passage: Psalm 23

Focus Verse: Psalm 23:4

Bible Reading: John 3-9

      There was an interesting article from a newspaper in Saint Joseph Missouri.  Dennis and Cindy Kovac, concerned when their daughter collected her second speeding ticket, issued a warning—to other drivers.  They put a bumper sticker on her car that reads, “If I’m Speeding, Call My Parents,” and lists the family’s phone number.  So far at least at the time of the publication of this article, there have been no calls and no more speeding tickets—just a little ribbing from schoolmates. Her parents are pleased with the results. “That sticker may save some lives,” Cindy Kovac said.

       Each one reading this can recall a time when your parents had to correct you or discipline you.  That correction was not very fun at that moment but it left an imprint (not just a handprint) on your life.  The Bible makes it clear that if a parent loves their child they lovingly correct them.  To allow a child to go wild without boundaries and discipline is one of the most unloving things a parent could do.  The same can be said about our relationship with the Good Shepherd.  The sheep continues his testimony in verse four with these closing words "Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."  The rod and the staff were traditional tools for each shepherd.  The shepherd would wield them against wild animals that came against his flock or use them to direct sheep back on the correct path.  It could also be a tool of rescue.  But that isn't their only use.  These tools were also used by the shepherd to correct a sheep that was disobedient.  Sheep wander aimlessly and need constant correction.  The Good Shepherd uses these tools to gently tap the animal to go the right way.  God does the same thing with us.  We need correction because we stray and disobey.  We become stubborn and bullheaded and think that our way is better.  We wonder in the fields of sin grazing and Jesus comes to correct us.  He lovingly disciplines us as His spiritual children because He has better things for us than the trifles of sin.  His fields, waters, and ways are better.  But notice when the sheep seems most tempted to stray, in the valley of the shadow of death, in a moment of defeat and difficulty.  It is in those moments where we fear or our faith melts like snow in the heat.  In those moments we try to recoil to our own judgment or understanding.  God sees this and knows this and jumps to action with tools of correction...tools to put us back on the right back to obedience.  Remember, God does not correct you because He's angry or mad at you, but because He loves you!

Reflections on the Road

Take a moment to look back at the moments when the Good Shepherd corrected you.  We didn't have a party saying "Yippy I'm being disciplined" but we rejoice in the aftermath, we rejoice that God loved us enough and we were of such high value to God that He would patiently and lovingly correct you.  He didn't leave you to your devices and in the mire of sin.  He chose to let you know that there was a better way, His way.  If God is correcting you right now, repent, surrender, yield.