Thursday, February 15, 2007

CHRISTIANS AND COWS!


I realize that the picture of this calf reflects a nice warm day without snow and ice, but this is a calf in heaven.
Anyways, I was talking to some guys today and one of them mentioned how he could just walk through his herd and tell you which heifer was going to calve within the next day, which cow needed some medical attention, which calf needed to be taken to the barn or what kind or how much feed certain ones needed. This was because he had "trained" himself to observe the signs. He had spent time with his cattle and just by paying attention, he knew what he had to do to meet the needs of the herd under his care.
It hit me that that we as Christians need to do a much better job of paying attention to the signs of what is going on in the lives of those around us. If someone is hurting, do we know it? If someone is struggling, do we respond? If someone is rejoicing, do we enter into that joy with them? Too often the answer to these questions is "no". Are we just not paying attention?
Maybe it would behoove (nice word) us to slow it down a little and turn up the frequency on our spiritual antennas. Maybe we need to listen more, open our eyes more, and observe what is really going on around us. Who's to say that we can't learn a few things from a cowboy?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a very mooooving blog!!

Andrew Conard said...

Thanks for the comparison and thoughts about paying attention. I think that you have hit on something very important here - the importance of paying attention to what is going on around us. I find myself in need of this discipline more often than I would like. Thanks.