I can’t stand it when they lose. Depressed and despondent.  Who wouldn’t be?  After all, the Yankees lost yesterday!   I can’t remember not rooting for them.  I started collecting baseball cards when I was 7 years old.  Still have only Yankees’ cards.  Do they make others?  Why?  Such wasted ink and cardboard!

Really matters not for my beloved Yankees what my emotions happen to be at the moment.  Nothing I can say or do will effect their outcome in any way, shape or form.  There’s something to learn here– it’s about knowing our limits.  Boundaries.  Step back, trust the Lord…and pray.

Our last church blessed me with the honorary title of Pastor Emeritus, the only one ever given in the history of our church.  What that entitled me to was a ministry of encouragement and prayer.  Involvement?… very little!  Suggestions?…keep them to yourself!   Criticism?…forget it!  Some pastors have a hard time letting go.  Why is that?  Because we know best?  That no one can do it like we can?

Pray for discretion to know our limits and boundaries.  To keep them where they should be. You must be wondering what any of this has to do with Zechariah 11.   I’m looking at verse 9.  Zechariah has been talking about a run-in with some leadership of ‘the flock’.  He says that this flock is ‘doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders'(verse 7).  He gets rid of three particularly wretched ‘shepherds’.

“So I said, ‘I will not be your shepherd.  What is to die, let it die.  What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed…'”  Zechariah has stepped back.  If sin is to run rampant and unchecked in their lives, by their own wretched freewill, then the Lord will judge.  Zechariah dare not and must not interfere.  This is so hard.  Why?

I don’t know.  My own discretion is sometimes questionable.  I do know that the Holy Spirit wants to give us discernment– when to be involved and when to let go.  Let’s pray for each other, because I think many of us carry around a lot of excess baggage that really doesn’t belong to us.  We wind up carrying it, allowing it to weigh us down, when really we should be letting go and letting God handle it.  I’m not good at this.  I’d like to be much better.  This little verse has triggered something that needs attention in my life.  To know my limits.  You too?.  It’s helped to talk it through with you today.  Now I’m going to talk to the Lord about it. The same for you?

Prayer:  Lord, we want to help but only when we can and should.  Mainly we look to you for your help and healing.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.