Who's in Your Herd?

There are some places on this planet that should be safe. A mother's womb should be a safe place. A child's bed should be a safe place. Families should be safe and so should churches. Unfortunately, many are not. So many of the tragic stories I hear at women's retreats are tales of violations of one or more of these sanctuaries. The natural response of the human heart to repeated betrayals of trust is to withdraw from relationship, the scene of so many crimes of the heart. There is something tragic about a group of women, many of whom are in a self imposed exile, converging to try to grow in their relationship with God from their place of isolation.

I spoke to the combined women's groups of Leduc and Beverly Alliance Churches this past weekend. Everyone looked pretty "put together" but my experience has taught me that appearances can be deceiving. Saturday night I spoke on God's desire for us to be plugged into relationships with Him AND His body - that in fact, we can't be all that He wants us to be unless we are. We become prey for our enemy who, like a predator in the wild, targets those who drift from the herd. I concluded my talk by showing a video filmed on a South African Safari. It shows a baby water buffalo wandering from the herd and being attacked by a pride of lions who are later joined by a crocodile. (You know you are having a bad day when lions have you by the nose and a crocodile's got you by the tale!) The tug of war is on but the lions eventually win the prize. Then amazingly, the herd of water buffalo returns. They surround and fight off the lions. Almost unbelievably, the calf survives and is saved and enveloped by the security of the herd. After showing the video, I gave the women the opportunity to come out of exile and choose someone to share their secret struggles with. I was so encouraged to see little groups of women walking, talking and praying together - becoming that safe place for each other that we all need to reach our God-given potential. Seeing so many women choose community over isolation, taking the risk of trusting again, or maybe even for the first time, was the highlight of a great weekend for me. Growing to be like Christ- in community not only keeps us safe from the enemy; it makes us dangerous to the enemy!

By the way, who has your back? Who's in your herd?

You can check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM