The Good Shepherd

While I was in Nicaragua in the spring, I had one of those vivid dreams I get from malaria pills. In it, I was on a Core retreat and had 3 hours to plan a talk. So, in this dream, I planned a full talk with main points, illustrations, the works. It was about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

At the time, I also was planning for this trip to Kenya. The leaders had told us we would have a Seminar day where we did a bunch of teaching, and I was asked to prepare one of two talks to give the youth. As I thought about it, all I could think to do was this talk about the Good Shepherd from my dream. I figured it was as good a thing as anything to teach, so I decided to go with it.

Later, I found out that Erik, who was giving the other youth talk, had also chosen to talk about the Good Shepherd, but from a different text (he did Psalm 23, I did John 10). God's pretty cool like that. So, months later, I gave that talk on a Kenyan hillside to girls I would end up building fairly close relationships with. I told them about how Jesus was my shepherd, leading my life, and had led me to them.

I told them about how he lays down his life for the sheep, heals and provides for them, and gathers them all together like he had done there with Kenyans and Americans. As I spoke, some of them really connected, looking surprised, excited, or concerned at different parts of illustrations or stories about my life. As I spoke, I realized the truth of what I was saying as well, more profoundly than I ever had before. Jesus really is a great leader of the world and of my life. That week, I also was able to hear from the girls some of their stories, struggles, and how Jesus was leading them. I'll post some of that soon.