NICE IN THE PASTURE

Friday, August 10, 2007

I got the name of this blog from an incident I had as a young pastor in South Alabama. We had a wonderful man in our church who would qualify for 95% of Jeff Foxworthy's redneck definitions. He was rough around the edges, but he had a good heart. I liked him because he liked me! He was always getting his words and expressions mixed up. He would say things like, "You can lead a horse to water, but don't look that gift horse in the mouth." Or "About the time you get out on a limb... somebody will pull the rug out from under you." And he spoke with such a pronounced drawl that even other rednecks had to play close attention. (We spoke in such a deep south dialect that when we took English in school, we could have called it English as a second language!) One day he was leaving church after I preached and he said, "David, you're the best pasture we've ever had!" I had to listen twice to make sure he hadn't just slurred "pastor." But then he clarified it by saying, "Yep, if I had a pasture like you on my farm, I could feed all my cattle in that one pasture." So I just said, "Thanks!" I've never forgotten that encounter ... and having been in the pasture as a pastor for 30 years, I like the analogy. Jesus said, "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and FIND PASTURE." (Jn 10:9) Life is good in the pasture of the Good Shepherd. Over the next few days, I'll be sharing my heart about things I observe from the pasture. But maybe you should go to bed now because it might be "pasture bedtime."