I was the sheep with the itch
The more I itched, the more I scratched
The more I scratched, the more I lagged;
I had enough of the good Shepherd
Scratching with uncompromising rod
Of sameness, faithful though it be
And I hated others nuzzling my itch.
Surrounded in the fold, I felt cheated
From private adventures, I felt life
Was too regulated, too premeditated
And too monotonous so the more I itched;
To be away, to be aloof, to be alone
To be that sheep – famous, bad and wild
Which goes and comes and eats as it wills.
To chart my path and go my way, I dreamed.
To tend my itch just as I wish. Farther behind
I stealthily drew until I found what I sought:
Last in line, out of sight, I drifted away;
I went my way to live my way
I went to scratch my itch my way.

Food For Thought: When we look out there, we are bound to feel cheated. Especially with all that others have going for them. We think some have too much for their own good while we are here, yearning for just a little with nothing to show for all our strivings. We feel denied and deprived in the face of their affluence. Yet, if we look inwards and face the truth: our needs are met despite our discontentment. If we look outwards and own up the truth, there are so many others out there who have so much less than we have been blessed with. How come we don’t see what would feed our gratitude? Because we only see what we seek. We see what we want to see to feed the hunger we want to fill. Because the Shepherd meets our needs, we itch to meet our wants ourselves. We pray guided by our desires instead of His Word. We hope that He will become the God of our dreams who does as we wish. We wait for our will, not His to be done, then we get tired of waiting, count our disappointments, tag them His failure and build our justification for desertion. God has failed! Like we were actually waiting, secretly hoping, for Him to fail us so we can have our way. And once it appears He’s failed, we bail to live the life we have always dreamed of. Then too late, we realize that reality and dreams are worlds apart. That reality is hard enough we need help to live it. That it takes help to turn dreams to reality. That rebellion is a killer and not a helper of dreams. It is okay to itch every once in a while but how you scratch it makes the difference. There are places you don’t have what it takes to scratch by yourself: God is our help. He orders our steps and places fitting help in our path in their due times.

Scripture: There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Proverbs 14: 12.

Prayer: Dear Lord, my wants are countless and life is a failure when driven by my wants: may Your will drive my dreams, my passion, and my life, amen.