As I was doing my early morning chores on my urban farm I began to notice a pattern.  As I gathered the eggs from my 4 laying hens, I had to enter their fenced in coop.  They are not free to roam.  I also escorted our two dogs to their pen to spend the day, and fed and watered the 2 four week old chicks that were hatched in a friend’s class room, and the 4 two week old guineas that my wife just had to have, all in their cages.  I also fed the 11 fish confined to our koi pond, and tended to the two lizards that our kids just had to have, now living in a cage in our living room.  As you can see, my farm consists of animals all nicely confined to their own little spaces.

But not all the animals I saw were confined.  As I watered my plants, I noticed a squirrel freely roaming through the trees and a rabbit hopping slowly across the yard with a full stomach after partaking of one of the plants I had so thoughtfully planted for him.  Both of these creatures were free to come and go as they pleased and enjoy life without being penned in.

As I considered the contrast between these two ways of life, I began to wonder, “am I confined, or am I free?”  It’s easy to say free, because I can come and go as I choose. There are no bars or chains to confine me.  Yet I wonder, am I really free?

 Yesterday my message was from John 10:1-10.  In this message we find the Good Shepherd calling his sheep to come out of the pen that holds them confined.  They are now free to leave the pen behind and discover a wide open world.  This however, is not easy, but they do so because they have learned to trust the Good Shepherd.  They believe that he will protect them and lead them to quiet streams and green pastures.

Now I understand that this story is about hearing God’s voice and trusting Him as He leads us into the future, but the question I wonder in this is what kind of pen is He seeking to lead us out of?  What is it that might keep us from being free to simply follow His voice as He leads us?

As I pondered this question the first thing that came to mind is fear.  How often do our fears keep us caged up?  God calls us into the future, and we say that we trust Him, yet we hesitate to follow where He is leading.  Could it be that fear is the pen that we are living in?

I wonder if there are emotions that might also have us trapped.  We would love to move on into the future God is opening up before us, but the only way to do so would be to forgive what has been done to us by others, and we just cannot do that.  They must pay for what they have done to us, even if the price means that we will be penned up with these emotions for the rest of our lives.

As we look for things that might keep us confined, we must not forget our circumstances.  Often when God calls us to follow where He is leading, we take a look at what we have or do not have, our past and present, even our strengths and weaknesses, and we determine that what God is calling us to sounds great, but there is just no way with circumstances the way they are.  We are trapped, maybe because of decisions we made or maybe the decisions of others, but we are trapped.  The future God is calling us to could never be possible in our life.

Another pen that might keep us confined is that of self sovereignty.  We hear Him calling, but we just cannot listen.  If we followed Him, we would have to give up control of our lives.  We somehow believe that we will be far happier confined by our self-sovereignty than if we relinquish control to Him and let Him lead us into a world of green pastures and still water.

The more I thought, the more that I realized that there are so many things that can keep us from really being free.  Without thinking, we choose to stay in the pen, when He is inviting us into an amazing future with Him, a future in which He promises to lead us, provide for us, and protect us, and also a future in which we will really be alive.

The animals I care for do not know any better than to stay in their pen.  Yes the dogs get out at times, but they always come right back to their pen.  Even the chickens are content to stay in their coop.  I wonder, have I settled for confinement, or am I letting the voice of my Good Shepherd lead me out?  What about you?