Herd Mentality

I’m told one of our Change Makers (a.k.a.-teachers) had a great discussion with our Jr. High students today. I wasn’t there for the discussion, but overheard a few comments. The phrase herd mentality was mentioned.

The phrase brought a number of memories to mind, in fact, it made a smile come to my face. We chased chickens when I was young, got run over by relocating flocks of sheep, and moved many cattle from pasture to pasture among many other herd-type situations. I can’t count the number of minutes, that surely add up to days, we spent chasing a band of horses who didn’t want to be caught.

We once visited the Navajo Nation when I was a student teacher. A Navajo teacher told a riddle, he called it a math problem.

If you have 10 sheep on the top of the hill and 4 leave, how many do you have left?

The answer is not 6, it’s neither 5… or 7 (if your math is off some). The Navajo didn’t give the answer, he just smiled.  It was his way of being able to tell who he was dealing with.  The answer is… 0.

All these memories serve as a reminder of what herd mentality looks like. If one animal does it, the rest do it.  In fact, this instinct can be tied so deeply, it can lead an animal to its death. Many buffalo have run off of a cliff following the animal in front of them.

It turns out that the buffalo are not the only ones to make this mistake.  You don’t have to look around very long to see the herd patterns you’re in.  Watch for monotony, it’s a good indicator of herd pattern. We often do what is being done as modeled by someone else.

It seems that Christians are particularly good at herd patterns.  It’s often hard to distinguish the blurred lines of timeless Christian faith and American Christian culture.  To make it worse, if you step outside of the herd patterns, it is almost guaranteed that someone will doubt your salvation.

Questions are one way to check herd boundaries. In Christian culture, questions seem to take a back seat to answers.  How did we arrive at this equation?

Questions = Doubt = Lack of Faith

You know what can be found outside the herd, or flock, or gaggle? [A pause while you look up gaggle?] Freedom, and life, and creativity, and new possibilities, and greener pastures, and a whole array of other wonderful assets. One could argue that you can find these within the herd- and what about safety?  True, but when’s the last time freedom felt new?

I’m not sure what the Jr. High specifically talked about today, but I’m glad they did. I hope our students wander into the big, wonderful world with eyes wide open. I pray they will be able to discern the herd patterns and look for opportunities to lead rather than follow all the time. Our students will be Change Makers because we are introducing them to the possibility of such.

I secretly chuckle inside when someone refers to Jesus’ words about us being a flock of sheep like it’s some flattering reference. It seems Jesus called us a flock for many reasons, most are not complimentary. The focus in the metaphor is who Jesus is as Shepherd, why would it be flattering to be referred to as a sheep?

 

Do it Again…

“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Ch. 4

 

Luggage or Baggage?

|Anderson|

When I was in school, if we were really good and finished our worksheets, we got to go to the library and play on the computer.  We shuffled through the floppy disks in the plastic container with the clear, flip top knowing exactly what we were looking for.  Come to think of it, the reward of playing The Oregon Trail was one of the few things that motivated me in grade school.

We would play for as long as they would let us, giving up recess to watch the wagon wheels roll and have another shot at some random animal racing across the screen.  The day we found out we could save our game was one of the highlights of my 5th grade year.

Before we learned to save the game, we would start at the beginning every time purchasing provisions, parts and protection.  You could choose to be a banker with lots of money but your health went quick because you were not up for the challenge.  We picked farmer most of the time.  They seemed to last longer.  At a young age, we learned that you couldn’t take everything with you.  Some items were too heavy to put together with others.  We chose what to take with us and away we went on a new adventure, every time.

At Anastasis, we find ourselves in a similar spot.  Not necessarily preparing our wagons, buying oxen and trying to decide what ration of food to put the family on.  But, we are headed out on a journey.  The success will be in the follow through and we can only take so much with us.

What can we leave behind?

Is this the perfect time to let go of some things that could be weighing us down?

Do we need to make room for new possibilities and blessings?

I have plenty to leave behind.  I’m thankful for God’s Spirit that leads me to look inside and do some leaving behind.  My pains, fears, insecurities, they can’t stay.  Things others have done to me, things I have done to others, all take up space.  Idols I’ve gathered along the way, dreams that were mine and not God’s, yup, they all require precious effort to lug along.

To who could you confess?  Who deserves your mercy and grace?  What habits are hinderances?  Will you slow down the group with your junk?

I’m looking forward to leaving these all behind.  When I do, I’ll have room for courage, hope, faith, a desire for justice, humility and joy.

Good trade if you ask me.  Only thing we need now is a wagon and some oxen to carry the blessings we’ll find along the way.