LIFE ON THE “D” LIST: DEVOTION

John 10: 1-11

This year at our annual Scottish service in January, I told the boys and girls the classic story about a little Scottish Terrier named Bobby, who loved his master name Jock in Edinburgh, Scotland until Jock died. Then the little dog lay on the grave of his master until he died …fourteen years later.  I said that was an example of devotion. Devotion can be found be between animals and people, between a person and another person, between God and us, and between a lover of Jesus and Jesus himself. Nicholas Sparks is a novelist who can move my heart. In his novel called THE NOTEBOOK, his story is set in North Carolina in 1946 and Noah Calhoun is as devoted to Allie Nelson as anyone ever could be, from young age to old. If you read the book or saw the film perhaps you they moved you too. Sparks says he modeled the novel on the love he saw in his wife’s parents. It is a story of devotion. In Pat Conroy’s autobiographical book, THE WATER IS WIDE, he tells of his being hired to teach exceedingly poor children on Yamacraw Island off the South Carolina coast. It was a poor and rundown place where nobody else stayed to teach very long. His students were between ten and thirteen years old and had developed a dialect that was almost impossible for him to understand. But as he stays on the job for the sake of those children, they began to understand one another, and  his devotion to them grew and their trust in him grew too. What a story.  Other stories of devotion include Catherine Marshall’s love for her husband the late Rev. Peter Marshall as she told about their relationship with him and Peter’s relationship with God in her book: A MAN CALLED PETER. C.S. Lewis loved a woman named Joy and he was devoted to her; after her death he met a couple named Sheldon and Jean Vanauken who asked for Lewis’s Christian guidance in handling the news that Jean, or “Davy” as she was called,  had a mysterious illness and was going to die. In his book A SEVERE MERCY, readers are taken on that journey of that heart-wrenching story. In recent years we know of the human devotion that Nancy Reagan had for husband “Ronnie.” And just this week as he was listed in faith condition, we are reminded how the Rev. Billy Graham has been devoted to the proclamation of the gospel, especially through his Billy Graham Crusades.  Devotion is the stuff from which wonder stories are written and ordinary lives are made wonderful. But devotion to work, or to a person,  to a calling, to a task, or to a cause can have both it’s joys and its sorrows. Today let’s look at all that we risk—in both gain and loss—when we devote ourselves to someone or something else.

I’ve started with love stories today because they are the most typical when it comes to devotion. But devotion can create times of conflict as well. Imagine, if you will, an eighteen year old young man who is a loyal son, a good student, and who is unattached.  He meets a girl about his age; she starts to be interested in him; he starts to be interested in her. As nature created them, their interest in each other grows. To the outside world it seems quite sudden. They seem inseparable; some might even say they have a passion for each other; some would say their devotions are shifting. What about school? What about family obligations? Will there be one more chair at a dinner table or one less? What about plans for college that already seemed so secure? Now devotion begins to trump plans. Devotion, you see, can bring about decisions to choose one thing over another. Devotion can make some choose faith over family; it can make someone chose one person over others.  It can make someone choose work over relationship, or relationship over work. It can also be a quality that an employer might most admire and most want to nurture.

Take, for example, the job of a shepherd. In Biblical times shepherds were not generally an admired lot. They often had little or no education. Sometimes they were young boys, sometimes men. Their job was to herd their specific flock of sheep, to see that they were fed, to keep them from harm, to find them water, and to care for them. Author Phillip Keller, in his book A SHEPHERD LOOKS AT PSALM 23, lets readers know that sheep are fickle animals. They have to have their food just right or they won’t eat it. Still, they will gladly eat poisonous plants if the shepherd doesn’t pull them out first. That’s how a shepherd prepares the pastureland. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” They won’t drink water from a running brook because the water gets up their nose, yet stagnant water easily grows bacteria and attracts floating bugs. So the shepherd has to dam up a flowing brook long enough for the skiddish sheep to get a drink. Therefore “he leads them beside still waters.” They can easily get off of the right path and take the wrong ones that can lead to cliffs or roadblocks. Therefore the shepherd has to “lead them in right paths because on his honor he promised the owner to watch over the sheep and keep them safe.” Sheep in pastureland also find valleys, and they can be among the most treacherous places since predators can lurk in the darkness. “Yea though I walk through the valley where other animals often do not come out alive,” bodes well for sheep if  they have a good shepherd. How does he do it? “The rod—a stout stick—sharply stricking a wolf’s nose can send him running, and the staff—the long slender stick with the crook on the end—can keep sheep from wandering off into danger. And in the countryside, biting flies can torment sheep unless the shepherd puts a fragrant ointment made from flowers and spices, that produce a natural insect repellent, on the forehead of the sheep. “Thou anointest my head with oil.”

Jesus is called “the Good Shepherd” to his sheep. I wonder what he meant by that? Of course now you know, don’t you? Just as a shepherd might back his sheep into a nearby cave, (that the shepherd thoroughly checks before leading them in) he then lies down at the entrance of the cave for the night to stand guard over his precious sheep. No one could harm the sheep, then, except over his dead body. You see, a shepherd will even lay down his life for his sheep. Sometimes parents, or friends, or buddies in the armed forces are like that: they will lay down their life to protect a child, a friend, or a soldier. But in our spiritual lives, all we, like sheep, need a good shepherd.  One you can see might be a pastor or Sunday School teacher or parent; but the one we all most need is Jesus, who called himself the good shepherd for his followers. In the Old Testament human beings are sometimes described as being like sheep. Some take offense to that: sheep are either foolish or afraid, and they get into all sorts of trouble if left on their own. Do you know people who are foolish, or afraid, or get into trouble? I do. A good shepherd helps sheep be healthy, safe, and protected, just like a good parent does for a baby. Jesus says to all of his disciples: “You know what a shepherd does; that’s what I will offer to do for you; that’s what I am capable of doing for you. I want you to have adequate food and drink, I want you to be safe, and I with my life I will pay for your soul.” A shepherd’s devotion to sheep can pull that shepherd away from his family, from his education, and from other pursuits. It’s a sacrificial job. Yet when we think of the word “sacrifice,” few Christians begin to think without picturing the lamb of God, who took away the sin of the world: or the Good Shepherd who died protecting his flock; or the Savior who died on Calvary. We know who he is; Jesus is the one with all those names, the one completely devoted to loving you, and me. Consider today where your ulimate devotions lie. Family is important; the guy or girl you love is important; country is important; school is important; life is important. Where can you, or do you, fit God into your schedule? And if God doesn’t just fit in, but if devotion to God permeates your other relationships and decisions, you can be open to life-altering positive changes, instead deal-breaking negative mistakes. To whom will you ultimately, ulitmately,  be devoted?

Jeffrey A. Sumner                                                           May 15, 2011