Parable of chasing the wolf

There was a shepherd who had a large flock and a big problem. A wolf had been taking his sheep one sheep at a time. The shepherd done all he could do to rid himself of this problem but nothing worked. Each week he saw more and more sheep taken from his flock and each week he felt more and more helpless. 

Until one day the shepherd had enough and struck out on his own to deal with this wolf once and for all. He tracked this wolf for miles and every now and then he would get close enough to get a shot off  but he would never hit its mark. 

He stayed the night in the woods, and the wolf circled his camp time and time again but the shepherd was unable to get a clear shot. Morning came and he sought to continue to track down this wolf. 

As he was tracking the wolf, a great blizzard had started to come in and the shepherd realized he needed to turn back to make sure his sheep would be safe. 

 As he headed back the wolf began to emerge from time to time and the shepherd would chase him and try to shoot him. Yet time and time again he would miss his target and waste valuable time.

As he headed closer to his home he saw an unusual sight. Dead sheep, slaughtered and torn apart started appearing here and there as he approached his home. As he drew closer he could see several wolves tearing into his flock. He tried to shoot at the wolves but sadly he no longer had any ammo. He yelled trying to scare the wolves away, but instead he drew attention to himself and became the focus of there attack. 

The shepherd died that day along with the flock, because he went out chasing the wolf, while the wolf pack took advantage of his defenseless sheep.

    

I wrote this parable from a piece of advice I was given by my good friend and pastor brother Nathan Wilkerson. He told me many years ago, "Don't get so focused on fighting off the wolves that you forget to feed your sheep". At the time that he had given me this advice I was dealing with problems in my church that was causing me to lose focus and become more and more frustrated. It was advice that I needed and it helped me to take a breath and begin to at least look at what the spiritual needs were around me that I could help with.

 It did not fix the situation and I eventually left the church but before I left I was able to see two young people, Cory and Audrey, come to know Christ, baptize them and officiate there marriage and set them on the path to serving God. They are to this day serving God in a church and are raising a beautiful family together. They are for me a very bright spot of my ministry there in that church that I look upon with fondness still to this day. 

It seems sometimes in life we tend to focus on one problem to the neglect of other important issues in our lives. For instance we think we need more money, so we focus on trying to make for money, but in so doing we neglect our relationships with our spouse and our children.  We get so upset with the injustices and the issues going on in our country, much of which we can't fix anyways. Yet ignore the issues going in our community and even in our homes that we can fix. 

This truth  has helped me time and time again in ministry and is probably one of the best pastoral advice I had ever been given. I thank the Lord for bro. Nathan's help and wisdom that I needed at that time. Furthermore I hope others can use this advice in there life as well and be blessed by it as I have been. So remember don't go around fighting off the wolves in your life that you forget to feed your sheep!