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WOOLLY Thoughts
Sheep are stupid.
I believed this until I shepherded my own little flock. It is true that sheep do some pretty stupid things, but I’ve come to believe that this isn’t out of stupidity, but out of fear. Sheep are the ultimate prey animal, which means they live with the constant fear of being eaten — a valid reason for fear. The issue with sheep is that almost every reaction they have, and almost every decision they make, is based in this fear and in this fear alone. This type of fear-based sheep-style living will stir up chaos in the barnyard in an instant. Something as simple as a starting lawn mower will spook one sheep into a mad run, which will make the other sheep think they should be afraid, and suddenly the pasture is a frantic wooly mob avoiding a non-existent threat. I once saw one of my sheep become so afraid by a passing tractor, that he ran headfirst into the barn wall. I get it. I’ve run into a few barn walls myself. Sheep aren’t wrong. There are indeed real threats in this world. Coyotes do roam and predators are always looking to eat. But I think Mark Twain said it best when he wrote, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” How often do our minds fill with predators and coyotes that are, in reality, just harmless passing tractors? At the very core of it, we are afraid as well, and that fear stirs chaos into our minds —a wooly stampede of thoughts avoiding non-existent threats sending us headfirst into barn walls.
When the rumblings of fear approach, it takes discipline greater than that of a sheep to stop long enough to really look at the perceived predator. It takes discipline to hold still and honestly assess whether the rumbling of our mind is simply a tractor or indeed a coyote. And when the tractors rumble in, it takes discipline to give a nod, and a farmer’s wave, and let them simply pass by as we return to the green pasture at our feet. n
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