Five ways to walk · For God
Sheep trying to be the sheepdog
When the mission becomes the point, we can work for the Shepherd for years and hardly spend time with him.
Some of us found purpose in serving God: ministry, missions, volunteering, leading. The work is real and good, and it gets celebrated. The people who do the most get the most applause.
Sheep trying to be the sheepdog run themselves ragged herding everyone else. They’re faithful. They’re also tired, and quietly afraid that if they stop, they won’t matter.
What it gets rightGod really does send his people into his work. The mission matters (Matt 28:19–20).
Where it bendsThe bend is putting God’s mission ahead of God himself. Our fear of not mattering gets poured into activity, and burnout starts to look like faithfulness.
Fellow travelers
People in Scripture who walked this way.
- The older brother worked his father’s fields for years and lived like a hired hand: “All these years I’ve been slaving for you” (Luke 15:29).
- Martha served Jesus in her own home and was distracted by all the preparations (Luke 10:40).
- Elijah collapsed under a broom tree after his greatest victory (1 Kings 19:4).
- The church in Ephesus worked hard and endured, and had left its first love (Rev 2:2–4).
The father’s answer to the older son is the whole story: “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31).
The way home
Jesus appointed the twelve “that they might be with him” first, and then sent them out (Mark 3:14). The order matters.
God fed Elijah and let him sleep before he gave him anything else to do (1 Kings 19:5–8). Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, and he called it the one thing needed (Luke 10:42). Fruit grows from abiding, not straining (John 15:4–5).
Take one hour this week with no prayer list, no strategy and no output. Just be with him.