Hounded!
First, my eldest daughter came through her surgery fine and the biopsy showed nothing untoward. She’ll be up and around in a few days.
Next, my friend Barbara White is up and around. After this third course of chemotherapy, she has bad days and worse, but Friday morning she felt well enough to drive to my house and treat me to breakfast at Dave’s Diner.
Over breakfast we talked about the 23rd Psalm and dogs.
Barbara noted that the Psalm starts off with the Shepherd leading: “He leadeth me beside the still waters”. Here we see the Lord Jesus going in front of us.
But the Psalm ends with :”Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me”. To follow me means to come behind me.
In one sense the whole picture is that of the Lord compassing us about on all sides—but there’s something more here.
Barbara’s pastor recently showed a video of two sheepdogs herding a flock. The dogs ranged back and forth behind the sheep, barking now, laying low then, rushing in, backing off, nipping flanks—dogging the sheep toward the safety of the corral.
The sheep would not ever name a sheepdog, Goodness.
Sheep would not name one, Mercy.
Goodness and Mercy are the names the Shepherd gives to what follows us yapping and nipping at our heels.
Among the sheep, these harassing herders-of-sheep are more likely to be called by names like Trouble and Aggravation, or Problem and Pesteration, or Misery and Frustration—any name but Goodness and Mercy.
But the Lord surely sets them to harry us all the days of our life till we’re hounded safely Home.
Those are spiritual observations that Barbara made as we talked.
But I made a contribution to our conversation too:
Heard about the dyslexic agnostic who suffers from insomnia?
He stays awake all night wondering whether or not there really is a dog.
Barbara groaned.
I wonder if the pain of her cancer is coming back?
Incidentally, Barbara White’s Along The Way series of books can be found at www.bluefishbooks.info .
And, You-Tube has a great video of two Border Collies herding sheep to a shepherd at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HwwdSKrqEk
Please, visit my website for more www.cowart.info and feel free to look over and buy one of my books www.bluefishbooks.info
posted by John Cowart @ 4:17 PM
6 Comments:
ly thing better than reading your blog is having breakfast with you at Dave's. I'm still groaning about your joke!
Dave's is the greatest greasy spoon breakfast place ever!
I think that the sheep would be more petrified by an ankle biting dog such as a pom or pekingese! My favorite movie that involves sheepdogs is BABE the pig. Babe is a pig who made a great sheepdog! Not that that has a thing to do with anything, but I thought of the movie when I read this.
I always wanted to have a couple of dogs I would name Goodness and Mercy. I have two dogs now but they came pre-named from the pound.
A blog friend has to little doggies called Goodness and mercy.
I like this post John, I am meditating on Ps 23 with Max Lucado.
So glad to hear Barbara is feeling better. I am praying for you Barb.
Good to hear nothing alarming showed up in your daughter 's tests.
To add to the groans, when I was growing up, we had an elderly neighbor named Mercy. She was anything but merciful, and we kids would try to skirt her house on the way to school because she was likely as not to come out after us with a broom!
In church one morning, the pastor read the 23rd psalm, and one of my second-grade classmates wailed rather loudly, "Nooooo! I don't want Mercy to follow me all the days of my life!"
Hi Elizabeth,
Good one--Got a kick because Mercy is our daughter Eve's middle name.
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