Context, it's important

Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well. 

The church can be a funny place. I hear all sorts of stuff at church, most of which is unrelated to God. 

I was listening to one of the elders, (I will call him Luke; yes, it is his real name and a story always goes better with a real name.) a guy that is part of the Shepherds Team, a leader in the church, I could go on but once again I hear all sorts of stuff in church, and as I said, most of which is not related to God at all. 

Like this one:

He starts with, "I was in the living room doing guy stuff, (Whatever 'guy stuff' is, he didn't elaborate), and I hear one of my kids (who is in the kitchen with his mother say, "I have goat nipples." 

He then goes on to say, "I heard a pause and then my wife (the kid's mom) says, "Well you might want to get that looked at."

What Luke hadn't bothered to mention yet is that they live on a farm and raise goats; a little known fact about "raising" animals is that you typically have adult animals, young animals, and usually in the spring you have baby animals. When you have baby animals bottle feeding comes to mind. Bottle feeding is an experience in itself, and yes it includes a bottle and low and behold nipples. 

Luke's child was in the kitchen with his mother and she was washing bottles and he had brought the bottle nipples. 

Up until the point where Luke talked about the farm, the whole congregation was wondering just where this story was going. Luke got a big laugh, he is a funny guy. 

We also learned that Luke is a hunk, a hunk of burning love that morning. Once again context is important, but I won't go into that now. I think I will leave that for a later bread!

Context it's important. 

Butterfly moment;

I was with a friend the other day and she looks over and says, "Oh look a  cow."

I say, "Yep."

Then she says, "Oh look a baby calf."

I said, "You are very observant. Have you ever bottle-fed a calf?"

She said, "No."

I said, "You have to be careful, if you aren't paying attention the calf will suck your arm all the up to your elbow in its mouth. When you pull it out it will be covered with that slime they use in alien movies."

She said, "Gross, I don't want to bottle feed a calf."

Back to what we were talking about.

Context. 

I have left the forest. 

I am clearly walking the path out in the open. 

I have the opportunity to look far down the road if I want. I don't want to. It wouldn't be good for me. 

I have the opportunity to gaze into my past if I want to. I don't want to. It wouldn't be good for me. 

I am content to look a bit down the road; glancing into the past just to get context.

I do hear a river up ahead, I wonder if it is the same river that I heard in the forest. I am not worried about it, I will find out soon enough. 

For now, I am just enjoying my walk. 

The funny thing about those tapes in your head, they distort Context. If I was still listening to those tapes there is a good chance I would have gone to the doctor to have my goat nipples looked at. 

It took me a while to unravel and unbind the truth from the lie. 

I don't have goat nipples. No, I have bottles that have bottle nipples. 

Why would I need baby bottles you ask?

Well, it is quite simple really. God asked me., "Do you love me?'

I said, "Yes, you know I love you."

God said, "Feed my sheep."

I love God, so I am feeding His sheep.

Are you feeding anything? If so what are you feeding?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,