Warriors & Shepherds

Before he was a king, David was a shepherd. Long before Goliath, before the armor he couldn't wear and the sling he could, David was out in the hills of Bethlehem doing the most unglamorous job in Israel, watching sheep nobody else wanted to watch.

He told Saul about it himself, almost as an afterthought, when everyone doubted a boy could face a giant. He said that when a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb, he went after it. He caught it by its fur and struck it down. He'd done that more than once.

Nobody was watching when David did that. There was no army cheering him on, no name for the history books. Just a boy, a flock, and a decision that the sheep in his care were worth the risk to his own life.

We love the Goliath story. The underdog, the five smooth stones, the giant falling. But Goliath wasn't the first time David went to war. He'd already been fighting, quietly, for the things he was responsible for, long before anyone handed him a title.

Not every warrior is a shepherd. Plenty of men can fight. But every real shepherd is a warrior, whether he ever picks up a weapon or not — because shepherding is warfare. It's just warfare aimed outward, on someone else's behalf.

That's the difference. A warrior who isn't a shepherd is a mercenary. He fights for himself. His pride, his territory, his win. A shepherd fights for what he's been given to protect. His wife. His kids. His team. The people counting on him who may never know how many lions he quietly ran off before they even woke up that morning.

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming...The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep." (John 10: 11-13) 

Jesus took on the role of a lowly shepherd, not royalty or a hired hand who runs when the wolf shows up because the sheep aren't really his primary concern. A shepherd who stays. Who fights. Who lays everything down. For Jesus, the flock is you and me.

Who's your flock?

For me, it's my wife, the reason I get up early everyday and choose to work on me so I can be better for her. It's my kids, whether they're five or thirty-five, who need to know I'll go after whatever's trying to carry them off. It's the team I get to lead, who trust me to run toward the hard conversations instead of away from them. Shepherds come in every shape and color. A single mom working a double shift, a coach staying late for one kid who needs it, a boss who takes the hit so his people don't have to. None of them look like warriors. All of them are.

You don't need a sword to be dangerous on behalf of someone you love. You just need to decide the lion isn't getting the lamb. Who's your flock? Are you a mercenary or a shepherd?