Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

I appreciate each issue of Tabletalk magazine, but November 2002 had absolutely the best cover art. While there was much inside the magazine that was profound and important, I’ll always love this issue for that stupid sheep on the cover.

Look at the wide eyes – not wide with fear (which would be appropriate), but wide in naïve optimism (check out his left ‘arm’ position if you doubt my assessment of his cheerful confidence). There is a little worry here, but it’s drowned by his self-satisfaction at fitting in so well: “My how brave I am, look how I’m engaging the culture. Not like those inauthentic fundamentalists back in the sheep fold.”

When we fraternize with the wolves, we like to think that we’re the ones doing the influencing. Even a brief glance at church history – modern or ancient – demonstrates the foolishness of this myth of influence.

1 comment:

Dan Sudfeld said...

Thanks Terry. The same could be said for unequally yolked marriages, where the believer has good intentions of evangelizing their unbelieving spouse, but the reality is that it rarely happens. The wolf will eventually devour the sheep.