The Dream of a Hireling

Have you ever had a bad dream and when you wake up are left with a foreboding feeling?  That happened to me last night. In my dream I was standing in a check out line at a store next to a ward member and we struck up a conversation.  Eventually, the conversation turned to politics and I asked her, "Do you stay up on politics and the news?"
"No. Not at all" she declared almost pridefully.  
"Oh" I murmered.

That's my response?  Seriously?  Why can I never think of the right words when I am in the moment?  Why couldn't this be like that time in college when that obnoxious single boy in my Anatomy and Physiology class hounded me daily in front of my peers about why I didn't have a child yet and I finally retorted one day, "Because we are saving up to by a boat!".  Why can't I be more like that?  Why is it that I can never gather my wits about me before the opportunity to respond ends?

Maybe I think I am not informed enough, and that I don't know well my facts and figures to successfully argue my point.  Maybe I pre-judge the individual and think, "Me saying this won't make an ounce of difference.  I am not going to change their mind so why try?" Or maybe I am just a scaredy cat. Whatever the justification, it isn't valid.  In D&C 88 it states,
 

". . .[I]t becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads."

I think that is self explanatory.  We warn!  And we don't just do it once.  We warn as well as we can, as long as we can, to everyone that we can--that way, when calamity befalls and crisis ensues we are not responsible for other's ambivalence or ignorance.  Knowing this, now is not the time to be sheepish.  There are wolves amongst us leading the lambs away and tearing asunder the sheep.

Sheep are funny creatures.  One of my dear friends in high school, her family raised sheep and I had the opportunity one time to watch her work with the lambs.  She was trying to bottle feed one of the babies, and I quickly deduced that these animals have a mind of their own. You would really have to love these creatures to be patient and long suffering with them.  You would have to espouse at least a portion of the love our Savior, the true Shepherd has.

Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.  The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."  (John 10: 11, 13-14) 

(The Good Shepherd by James Tissot 1836-1902)

Perhaps that is one of the reasons the Savior asked his Senior Shepherd Peter three times if he really loved the Lord.  The Savior understood how unlovable we can be at times; thus, He knew as the first and second great commandments stand, that if Peter loved God with all his heart, might, mind and strength, he would then be able to love the lambs as himself. 

This is important and a key for us to become the type of shepherd the Lord needs us to be, for haven't all true disciples of Christ been entreated to feed his lambs.  We have to love the Lord.  We have to have respect for the Owner of the Operation.  We have to recognize that in the business of bottom lines, we don't profit if His sheep are lost.  His work is our work.  

His company employs three types of shepherds:

Father-Son Shepherd: there are those who grow up in the business of animal husbandry (like my friend) and they can become shepherds, taking over their father's flock. This type of shepherd is invested personally in the company and knows the ins and outs of the work.  They are the most qualified to oversee and direct in the work because they have grown up in it--it is second nature.

Love the Sheep Shepherd: others come into it for sheer love of the creature.  They, like the first type are loyal care-takers, willing to protect and care for the flock, even at the peril of their own life.  They find joy in the job, and deep satisfaction in managing and administering to the fold. 

The Hireling Shepherd: these individuals are in it for the money and care little for the sheep or the owner of the flock.  They flee at the first hint of danger, prizing their own lives before that which they are stewards over. 

I don't want to be a hireling.  I want to be an asset to the company, and perform well in the position I currently find myself.  

I know now what I would say to my friend at the check out.  I would ask, "Do you check the weather before you go outside?  Do you register how much gas your car has before you drive somewhere?" More than likely they would say yes. "It's about being prepared" I would tell them. "You don't want to be caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella or stranded on the side of the road with an empty tank.  Why wouldn't you take the same approach to the world of which you are a part?"

I know that I can do a better job looking after those within my circle of influence, instead of hemming and hawing about those in my circle of concern. I can do as D&C 88 states:

 

"be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—

That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you. Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads." 

(D&C 88:78-82)