{"id":252,"date":"2023-02-08T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T21:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/?p=252"},"modified":"2023-02-08T15:35:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T21:35:11","slug":"green-pastures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Green Pastures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I think about the nature of living: what it’s like, and what it is supposed<\/strong> to be like. I have (pretty much for my entire Jesus-following life<\/em>) such a strong desire to be perfect. I read the absolute calls of God in the Bible, the calls to total surrender, walking in the Spirit, experiencing power and joy and peace and such, and I want<\/strong> it. Ultimately I want it because it is good<\/strong> and makes God look good and I love him and as his child I truly do long for his “name to be hallowed”; but right along with that I want it because when I don’t walk in a sense<\/strong> of absolute surrender and flow and perfect Jesus-performance (haha, what a phrase<\/em>) it makes me uneasy. Very<\/strong> uneasy. I am so<\/span> uncomfortable with messiness in my own life. (Yes, I am an Enneagram One. Yes, there is a reason why all of 2021 and half of 2022 was filled with God teaching me to be OK with being a human being. Yes, the allure of trying to be and feel perfect is a perpetually tempting snare. Yes, I am laughing right now.)<\/em>

Anyway, here’s a fun, somewhat whimsical poem about one of the many aspects of that. Informed by Psalm 23 and the whole theme of being sheep. And it sounds like I’m teaching this … but I was basically writing it to myself.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GREEN PASTURES<\/strong>
God\u2019s not a god of confusion
But don\u2019t overextrapolate that
If we\u2019re always sheep
At the same time we\u2019re sons
Confusion is just where we\u2019re at

Not pumped about being dumb livestock?
Sure it grates against adamic pride
But David showed true
The king\u2019s a sheep too
It\u2019s the gateway to enjoy the ride

I can\u2019t get this all tied up for ya
There\u2019s a tension in what I now say
But at least hear the shout
Do not \u201cfigure it out\u201d
That\u2019s a long stride into the flesh way

So give up the drive for mind-wrapping
Left-brained horizon\u2019s full view
When sheep walk at night
A lantern\u2019s their light
But trust hears \u201cFear not, I\u2019m with you\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think about the nature of living: what it’s like, and what it is supposed to be like. I have (pretty much for my entire Jesus-following life) such a strong desire to be perfect. I read the absolute calls of God in the Bible, the calls to total surrender, walking in the Spirit, experiencing power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Trying this post-a-poem-every-Tuesday thing ... a day late. :)","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnwilliamschwartz.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}