Smelling Like Sheep

God's Spirit is always growing us, right? Molding, shaping, and refining us into the person He originally created us to become. I love that about Him. He loves me so much that He will not stop until I have fulfilled the purpose He has created particularly for me and me alone. (see Philippians 1:6)

In this process, I get what I call whispers and glimmers of where He's taking me and how He's going to accomplish His work in me. This is one of those seasons on my Journey where I've been intersecting with Scripture, books and sermons that are prompting me...okay sweeping me...toward His delight for me. 

As I've been memorizing 1 Thessalonians, I was especially struck by this verse: Having so fond an affection for you that we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. (I Thess. 2:8) 

This is what I see fleshed-out in places like the Kensington neighborhood of  Philadelphia where The Simple Way lives, loves and worships. It's what I hear happening in my daughter as she serves with Mission Year in Houston, Texas. It's the humbling I sense when I engage with people who are being transformed through their service with Tent Day or the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky. I want to know that passion, love and purpose in my life too, don't you? No wonder this verse in 1 Thessalonians hit me in just the right way.

But I'm also reading a book that is the "guideline" for the ministry of Pope Francis. I'm not Catholic, so I don't know what may be a better description of this dissertation, but I'm reading it as part of the Blogging for Books program and I can only digest a few paragraphs at a time. Once again, God's Spirit used the perfect phrase to describe what I'm feeling. My whole life I've heard the biblical comparisons to how Jesus is our "Good Shepherd". A Shepherd lays down his life for His sheep, He will leave 99 behind to hunt down the one that is lost. What Pope Francis reminded me though, is that shepherds smell like their sheep.

I have to enter into the lives of those I'm serving. I cannot be set apart and removed either physically, emotionally, spiritually or in any way. One of my absolutely favorite verses from The Message translation of the Bible is this:  The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. (John 1:14)

What does that mean for me? What does that mean for you?

I know it will look different and manifest uniquely in each of us. For some, it means moving into impoverished and abandoned neighborhoods so we can live, love, worship and develop "Beloved Community" with those who are marginalized in our culture. For others, it will awaken us to the spiritual poverty that is all around us, no matter how affluent our neighbors are. 

The point is, if God's Spirit dwells in me, then God has already "moved into the neighborhood". I think it's time that I started to smell like some sheep.