"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life." Prov. 4:23
I have been around animals way more in the last seven months than have in my entire life. Almost everyday on the way to my language lessons I walk around (or through) a herd of goats and cows. I have observed a few things about these animals. They love to eat our trash. They always hang out on the corner where my block puts our trash. They are skinny and help me to understand the need to add oil to the frying pan when making hamburgers out of Q'landi beef. But most relevant today - they are never alone. There is always someone from the village with them that herds them to my street corner. These animals are without understanding of the path they should follow. The same thing goes for donkey and camel carts. Have you ever seen one of these? In case you haven't here's a picture of a donkey cart:
The donkey is completely without understanding as to where to go without being curbed by its bit and bridle. I'm sure I must have read that verse in Psalms that I started with before, but I have never noticed it until today. I've been thinking on the word "keep" today from Proverbs 4:23. How must it be if I praise Him and continually cry out to Him yet, like a donkey with blinders, bit and bridle He has to keep reeling me in. The word KEEP in Proverbs 4:23 is a command - it doesn't instruct us that like donkeys we are to be kept - it directs us to KEEP. Do not be like an animal without understanding. Animals do not know the way they are supposed to go or why, but we do. We have been instructed in THE Way and should not act like foolish animals who wander away because they lack understanding. That's what the Book says about us - like sheep we had gone astray. Indeed, but that is not true of us anymore. When I think about keeping and donkeys I am drawn back to the word relentless. To keep is to be in a constant active state. It's static. No matter what else happens or how the scenery changes we're supposed to follow the Shepherd. This is not a one time action and we're done. It requires perseverance and is a choice we make every moment. I was talking about change with someone today and this is immediately where my mind went. Donkeys are distracted by their surroundings. I saw a donkey very up close and personal the other day. I was in a taxi and he was pulling a cart through a horrible traffic jam. The man sitting up on the cart was struggling to get the donkey to go the right direction. I saw it struggling against the bit, fighting against being pulled this way and that. As I think back on how uncomfortable that donkey looked it dawns on me that's not how He created us to be. He doesn't want to yank us around. He wants to instruct us, keep our feet from falling, counsel us and have His eye upon us. He wants us to walk the straight path no matter how things change. And that first part of the verse- I think it's a promise - He WILL instruct us, etc.
1 comment:
That's a good word, right there.
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