Anyone who knows me understands that I love to eat. I enjoy a well cooked meal. A full course meal to me consists of: tender, juicy entree with flavor-packed sides and something refreshing to drink. This is what satisfies my soul and strengthens me for the journey of the day.
However when I receive a meal, which I ordered, that is was thrown together I become grieved. Something that I waited for that I am in need of is not seasoned or throughly prepared when I finally get it. The meat is overcooker or tough (indigestible) and sides are in disproportion and I have no drink. At this point I am ready to eat somewhere else or settle for some junk food; just a temporary cure for my permanent thirst and hunger. So (and Adrienne knows me well) I either send it back or don't eat at all. How FRUSTRATING! I am in a place of feeding and the chef cannot properly prepare a meal. And not just prepare a meal for anybody but for me just the way I like it or can digest it! Has anyone been here?
Well if you said yes then good & if you said no then you should probably think about it again. This is the place where many sheep have been in the church, on the pastures of God. This weekend or encounter in the mountains opened my eyes to a heartbreaking reality, I AM NOT AS SKILLED OR PREPARED AS I SHOULD BE.
I have preached, taught and mentored yet I am not prepared as I thought. Throughout the OT I have read about sheep that were left without shepherds or either died from being mistreated/guided by false prophets/teachers (wolves) or such. The REALity is that sheep grow unruly because of their lack of guidance and feeding. Cattle and livestock die or wander when there is no food or they are in a dry place and cannot find food or drink. What a shame to be full off your own cooking yet your sheep are choking, hungry or disgusted by it.
As a shepherd it is imperative rather crucial that I ready myself in season and out not just for myself but for the people. I never know when someone will come to define so I should always have my storehouse FULL. I have to prepare meals for the people but in a manner that they can receive and digest. The most fulfilling meal is not tough or undercooked but tender and SEASONED well. Meat is seasoned well the longer it sits. It is my job to season the Word in me so that I can feed the sheep.
Every leader should be able to cut the meat rightly and divide it. No true chef wants to feel shamed because he was not prepared to serve.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Has not food been cut off before our eyes,
Gladness and joy from the house of our God?
The seeds shrivel under their clods;
The storehouses are desolate,
The barns are torn down,
For the grain is dried up.
How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
To You, O LORD, I cry;
For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for You;
For the water brooks are dried up
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Joel 1
To the Chefs prepare yourselves. Go back into the institutions of culinary arts and study because there is an art to it. Let the Master Chef bestow wisdom and sharpen your knives. Season well, clean your plates, prepare your ingredients and study your craft, every leader, because a herd is coming and we cannot afford to lose the herd because of malnutrition or our enability to properly feed. So let's cook!
~junior chef bishop
