Feed My Lambs
“Do you love me?” Jesus asked Peter – you and me, too.
“Yes”, Peter answered.
Jesus told Peter – and you and me – “Feed my lambs. . . . Shepherd my sheep. . . . Feed my Sheep” (John 21: 15-19)
Last year, my family chose to sponsor through Compassion International an 11 year old boy in Haiti. He is one of those lambs that need feeding, literally and spiritually. My support allows for others to spiritually mother and father this boy – and it allows those spiritual parenting hands to fill bowls and make soul-contact that I cannot because I am so far away.
Christians are a faith people commissioned to take the gospel to the world, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to feed God’s lambs. Yet, as we minister to the great needs of those around the world, it is equally important to not neglect the mission fields in our own communities, from backyards to school yards to church yards – all filled with children and young adults who cry out to be fed and shepherded.
It is a daunting mission-field, filled with the churched and un-churched – wearing rebellion, disinterest, eschewing group-think and God-think, daring others to look beneath the tattoos and piercings, the black clothes and saggy pants – daring you to find the beauty beneath because they have trouble finding it themselves.
“There are teens with bigger problems,” someone once told me about a churched teen, setting on a rebellion path.
“It’s all in the parenting,” someone else said about an un-churched teen not interested in God the Father because maybe he’s never experience a Shaddai-kind of father.
“There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers[mothers] willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up” (1 Cor 4:15).
I’m going to tell you straight up – I think it’s easy to send letters and financial support to a little boy in Haiti who needs. It’s not so easy to walk into the neighborhood mission field, where souls not only wear wrappings to discourage, daring you to come closer, but who fluently push back in your own language – who maybe through that pushing back allow you to feel as uncomfortable and graceless as they feel in this big old world.
When our children – yours and mine do this – we push right back, we reach right in, both physically and spiritually. But there are children – regardless of the age – who might not have a parent who is able, for various reasons, to fight that spiritual battle, to stand in the gap, to weather the ugly storm and fight for them.
“Do you love me?” Jesus asked. . . . “Feed my lambs”. . . “Shepherd my sheep”. . . “Feed my sheep.”
Not just my lambs . . . all the lambs: the lambs He puts in our path between our kitchen counter and the school desks our kids sit in or the sports field we walk on or the pew we sit in. It’s not just a one time feeding, a one time foray. It is a continual going back, our footsteps creating a path of familiarity.
“The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men – from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Spiritual mothers and fathers care enough to slog through spiritual poverty and hunger, through a minefield of emotions that our country’s children seem to battle, so many inside things that tear at them – these spiritual mothers and fathers slog through to carry soul keys to help youth and adults unlock who they are in Christ.
Are you a spiritual mother or father in your community? Are you willing to reach through uncomfortable barriers? To be challenged? To shepherd through real relationship?
Spiritual Parents do that – love children beyond their own, fight for them, push back, get uncomfortable, don’t give up in the ugliness of the challenge.
You don’t have to buy a plane ticket. You don’t have to take foster classes – though both are good. You just need to make your hearts available from your kitchen counter into the school rooms, the sports fields, the church pews and in-between. God will bring them – if you will love them.
“Do you love me?” Jesus asked. . . . “feed my lambs. . . shepherd my sheep. . . feed my sheep.”
Feed My Lambs
Feed My Sheep Part I: When Kitchen Living Becomes God-Radical
Feed My Sheep Part II: Living a Lifestyle of Making Room at the Table for One More
Feed My Sheep Part III: Which Sheep are Mine to Feed
Feed My Sheep Part IV: How do I Feed All these Sheep? (When there’s Nothing in the Fridge)
Feed My Sheep Part V: When Blessing is Invited to the Table
Feed my lambs… I find this to be such a beautiful, tender picture of the assignment Jesus gave us through Peter. So much work to be done in this area… thank you for what you do, and others like you. A tiny spark put together becomes a huge flame. May you be encouraged, and others be encouraged through you. Blessings, Lidia
This is the greatest work in the World–to feed His sheep, to witness the Words of God, to help those who can’t help themselves, to tell others about God’s great Love! Putting the welfare of others before our own is a blessing not only to them, but for us as well!
Blessings as you continue in your love and compassion with M.O.M. ♥
Denise
http://refinemelord.com/
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What a blessing to have you LINK – up with Daring Daughters with such a beautiful post about loving an orphan child through Compassion — It’s wonderful to meet you!!!
Ann Dunagan
You’re so right that serving close to home can be harder, but at the same time it can be so rewarding to invest in the community that is right here. Thank you for these brave, encouraging words. So glad you linked up at #ThreeWordWednesday.
That quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes made me pause a moment. It actually stung a bit, because it made me think of all the mistakes I have made. That burden is big to consider, but thankfully Grace can sweep away that chaff and burn brightly in their hearts. Thankfully, as mommas we can love through the mess ups, cause, ” …love covers a multitude of sins…”. I have had the privilege to tutor teenagers for the last 6 years as they are learning Algebra, American Lit, History, and Science. It has been such an experience, but what you said.. the pushing back so that we can see them, you are right. They are daring us to look past the false they wear, or maybe even the window dressings they put up to see the real them and they are asking, in a way, ‘Do you accept me?’. I will tell you there are days when the grace is easier to give to the teens that don’t carry my DNA. Yet, when we do, we show them love for the churched who can be difficult along with the unchurched who sometimes can be more loving. It shouldn’t be so, but sometimes it is.Again, we can learn the power of grace and the beauty of His immeasurable love through all these lessons we walk through together. As hard as it is, it is such a gift. Your words reminded me of that much needed truth today.
Thanks for the reminder to look at the mission field right in front of our eyes and see the prayer possibilities for miracles to manifest by His grace.
Blessings,
Dawn
This was so poignant, beautiful, inspiring, and also heartbreaking. You are so right – there are so many.
This is a powerful piece – one that encourages and equips, to open our eyes to see not the limitations, but the boundless opportunities that await for us as God calls us to them.