Thief in the Pen

I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, the sheep hear my voice and listen, they don’t listen to a stranger, for they dont know his voice. (John 10)

But Lord we asked, what if the thief is already in the pen, what then?

The Sheep hear my voic-

no we didnt, we hear what we’re allowed to hear, A voice that lies

A voice that pretends to be you, but its not you

A voice that tells us that we’re just sheep, and there’ll be trouble if we dont obey them

And says that you’re not coming to protect us……

Oh Hang on, wait a minute, you let them in didnt you?

You let them in the pen!

No, well, that ‘gate’ thing, what I meant was that, thats for you, if there was no robber or thief

but you let them in too?

I couldn’t stop them, you know like wheat and weeds, both

Marvellous, great, a gate keeper with no checklist

Its not my fault! They didnt appear to be a thief or a robber, its not like they wore it on a lanyard that said ‘Thief, about to steal sheep, D.O.B 11.04.23(AD)’ actually they gave me a great list of all their credentials of sheep care.

They lied to you too?

They always lies.

So that ‘God looks at the heart thing’ you know back in the David days, how was that going, did you have a heart bypass or something, could you not see through it when you let them in, you know twitchy eye contact, a bit too ‘boasty’, seems like they tried too hard, dont you think? Could you not have done something ?

I am the good Shepherd..

Yeah yeah, we heard that one at the beginning, if you’re that good where have you been hiding since you let in the robber in the pen?

Busy.

Busy?

Well, yeah, kind of busy.

Say more, goody shepherd?

Nope

We’re waiting

Well, there’s a pen over there you see, and its just far easier to be their good shepherd, no conflict see, and those sheep get to come and go and I can do that ‘gate’ thing over there, and its just lovely and the sheep play and eat grass

No thief over there then?

Well, err no…

You went for the easy life? Gate duty over there when the thief was in our pen?

The Sheep heard my voice and they came and went, and danced on the green pasture, and ate the green grass and I could lead them

Whilst we were trapped and you knew it. No Voice for us

Thats a bit harsh, you’re not jealous are you? Or just a tiny bit angry?

(Sheep stares)

(Uncomfortable silence)

(Sheep stares a little more)

We thought we could hear them..the distant sounds of something we once recognised, the sound of fun.. something that we could only ever hear but not do

Oh yes, Peace and love and joy, sounds about right

But not in this pen. Not with the thief inside, want to know what the thief said to us when we could hear all that ‘peace and love and joy’ ?

Ok, yes tell me

They’re better than you

They’re more deserving than you

They’re being spoiled

They’re not as sinful as you

They work harder

Thats what the thief said to us, so that we couldn’t have joy, or love or peace, just more rules, and being busy, and never being good enough, want to know more?

Yes please do.

We had to change.

We stopped feeling like sheep a long time ago, it made us weep to hear that it wasn’t far that sheep could be sheep. We werent our selves, and it was stressing us out

What do you mean?

Well it wasn’t safe, no time of day, the thief kept on watching and making us work, and gradually over time we noticed, that we treated each other more prickly too, developed hard shells, toughened our skin, we grew hair to cover our eyes, its like we forgot we were sheep inside, we had to pretend to be sheep.

Sheep on the inside, elephant on the outside?

What’s an elephant? All we know is this pen and the thief, oh and those fun loving neighbours, have you been playing with elephants too, in your busy times?

No, but what else has it been like?

Thief in the pen? One day one of the workers came up from the farm to check on us, see if we were being treated well , and we were like YAY we might be rescued, (given that you disappeared oh goody two shoes shepherd just out for the fun), and so we started to shout as loud as we could to get his attention, tried to make the hired hand listen to us

Oh yes the hired hand, he doesn’t listen listen he just runs away

Yeah, we know that now, thanks for the heads up.

What happened?

Well, as the hired hand got closer, we got louder, desperate to get them to realise that something was wrong, and you know what happened next?

No, tell me

Our thief smiled all nicely and said those words, ‘don’t worry about them, they’re just a little too sensitive, they get like this on a hot day sometimes, ill take good care of them‘

And that was it, no further questions, didnt even try, just believed the charm and the smile and walked away. And then…

then?….

Thief hits us harder than ever , blames us for showing them up, and you know what they said next, just after, trying to be nice?

No go on

That if we spend more time worshipping you he’ll put a good word in and that you’d come and see us. So thats what we did, doubly hard work, making wool and now a daily regime of worship and prayer. Did you not hear us singing to you?

erm, well, I could hear something, but it was words I didnt recognise and I had nothing to do with that arrangement, the thief always lies.

We now know that , took a while for us to realise though, and some still can’t believe that the thief always lies, some of us still want to think the best of the thief in the pen, but the only way out was to realise that thief always lies, even when they say they try, try to be better, try to be good they say, but never for long, always lies, never realising that we have to be clever, clever to to figure them out, clever to cope in the pen, with the thief at the helm.

Once you werent coming, I made a decision, because waiting for you, ‘pray harder’ the thief said, no I had to figure it out and find a way of escaping, I noticed the lies, and just had to ignore what the thief was saying, and realise that their actions didnt match

And then?

A few of us got together, kept noticing the patterns and behaviours and realised we could escape, once we remembered that we had more power, and choice, and once we stopped listening to the lies we gained more strength. But thats when thief turned nasty, violent, threatening, unravelling in front of us, we stayed firm and walked out of the gate, thief’s last words were to us was that ‘we wouldnt win, were in trouble now, we’ve made them upset‘ but we walked, and we realised then we could breathe and tasted the clean grass again.

I can see, im glad you are free

But others arent though, they are stuck in the pen, with the thief, what about them? What if the thief goes to other pens, what about them?

The sheep hear my voice – eventually

Is that what we found?

I think so, now enjoy life, full life, now that you’ve found it, and made it happen

Question, just before you go, are you ok with me being angry at you?

Yes, thats what you needed to get out of the pen

What if im angry with you for a long time?

Just take your time, let it out, feel and be loving to all the feelings

Thank you, and one more thing, why our pen? Why this one and not the other one? We have only known a thief in the pen

My dear sheep, there is no one answer to that question, and it might take some time for you to realise, but know that you can now rest, and play and live, and breathe and be, and feel your own wisdom, strength and resolve. The why is because what you had was wanted by the thief, you had something they wanted, and they always want and steal, you had something they tried to take, but also maybe there’s magic going on deeper in the whole of creation that neither I or you know about, and that magic has set you free.