From Max Lucado, his book ‘Traveling Light’:
. . . We can follow the example of the apostle Paul. His goal was to be a missionary in Spain. Rather than send Paul to Spain, however, God sent him to prison. Sitting in a Roman jail. . . He said, “As long as I’m here, I might as well write a few letters.” Hence your Bible has the epistle to Philemon, the Philippians, the Colossians and Ephesians. No doubt Paul would have done a great work in Spain. But would it have compared with the work of those four letters?
You’ve sat where Paul sat. I know you have. You were hot . . . on the trail to Spain or college or marriage or independence . . . but then came the layoff or pregnancy or the sick parent. And you ended up in prison. So long, Spain. Hello, Rome. So long, appointment. Hello disappointment. Hello pain.
How did you handle it? Better asked, how are you handling it? Could you use some help? I’ve got just what you need. Six words in the fifth verse of the Twenty-third Psalm: “You anoint my head with oil.” Don’t see the connection? What does a verse on oil have to do with the hurts that come from disappointments of life?
A little livestock lesson might help. In ancient Israel, shepherds used oil for three purposes: to repel insects, to prevent conflicts, and to heal wounds.
Bugs, bug people, but they can kill sheep. Flies, mosquitoes, and gnats can turn the summer into a time of torture for the livestock. Consider nose flies, for example. If they succeed in depositing their eggs into the soft membrane of the sheep’s nose, the eggs become wormlike larvae, which drive the sheep insane. One shepherd explains: “For relief from this agonizing annoyance sheep will deliberately beat their heads against trees, rocks, posts,or brush. . . . in extreme cases of intense infestation a sheep may even kill itself in a frenzied endeavor to gain respite from the aggravation.
When a swarm of nose flies appears, sheep panic. They run. They hide. They toss their heads up and down for hours. They forget to eat. They aren’t able to sleep. Ewes stop milking, and lambs stop growing. The entire flock can be disrupted, even destroyed by the presence of a few flies. For this reason, the shepherd anoints the sheep. He covers their heads with an oil-like repellent. The fragrance keeps the insects at bay and the flock at peace.
At peace, that is, until mating season. Most of the year, sheep are calm, passive animals. But during mating season everything changes. The rams put the “ram” in rambunctious. They strut around the pasture and flex their necks trying to win the attention of the new gal on the block.. . . . The two rams lower their heads and an old-fashioned head butt breaks out. (continued) ~Max Lucado Traveling Light—Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear (Thomas Nelson: Nashville: TN, 2001), 126-127
