The LORD is my Shepard and I his sheep

“You don’t need to carry the burden of a lesser god… a god on a shelf, a god in a box, or a god in a bottle.” Chapter 2 in Traveling light talks about how much we need our God as who he is and not who we want him to be. Max makes good descriptions talking about how we try to make God like a genie in a bottle or put him in a nice little box. I have heard other scenarios that have the same way of describing how we try to make God into what meets our specific needs of the moment such as a waiter or prostitute. We get what we need then dismiss God. As we begin the Psalm we need the reminder that he is LORD, no less, and we shouldn't want less. Pulling from the Study guide in the back of the book: “Unchanging. Uncaused. Ungoverned. These are only a fraction of God’s qualities, but aren’t they enough to give you a glimpse of your Father? Don’t we need this kind of Shepherd? Don’t we need an unchanging Shepard? How do you answer Max’s questions?” This is exactly the kind of Shepherd we need especially when we are as dumb as sheep.

In chapter 3 Max talks about the burden of self-reliance. He mentions how often we rely on ourselves when really we can’t. He completely opened my eyes to the relationship of the Shepard and his sheep. I always knew that the Shepard took care of the sheep. I guess I just didn’t know enough about sheep to realize how dumb they are and how little they can do for themselves. A light bulb goes off and its’ like “Wow. No wonder David used sheep to describe us!” Max does an awesome job of helping people relate to how much we as sheep need our Shepard. Be honest with yourself and take his simple quiz about self-reliance in chapter 3 and see how you do. I know I did not pass all 4. Throughout the rest of the book Max will mention more of our similarities with the sheep. Another book if you have time to read is, “A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23” by Phillip Keller. After I first read Traveling Light I told Jody Beth how awesome it was and how enlightened I was by our similarities with the sheep. She immediately recommended the Keller book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned even more. I hope you are enjoying your reading thus far.

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