A Shepherd's Insights: Part III

Kathy and I recently witnessed a performance on shepherding by a shepherd from Ireland. He highlighted three qualities about sheep that I found instructive.

The final quality is that sheep are humbly obedient. We watched as this shepherd used his staff to simply point in a direction and the sheep followed his lead. The sheep would gather and begin moving in the direction in which the shepherd had pointed in humble obedience. They respected the shepherd's knowledge and accepted his guidance.

As shepherds, we need to give our team clear direction; but as followers we need to be humbly obedient to our leaders and follow their lead. It is a reliable way to maintain a healthy relationship between levels of leadership.

Colossians 3:22 says, “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.”

Simply being obedient is not enough. The Lord calls His followers to submit to authority sincerely. He expects respect and honor to be given to those He sets in positions of leadership.

God desires us to humbly obey those who are in authority, just as sheep do.

Questions for Reflection

• To whom do you answer? Who do you owe humble obedience to and in what way? What is the extent of the expectations of their leadership over you?
• How can you model humble obedience to your employees? What can you do to inspire the same kind of trust in you that sheep have in their shepherds?