I grew up in rural Arkansas, but it wasn’t until 1995, when I married a farmer’s daughter, that I learned the lessons of farm life. We weren’t married long before 30 or 40 head of cattle found a hole in the fence and began chasing greener grass down our county road. Everyone else was tied up on the farm, so I took it upon myself to put the cows back up. First, I called them as my father-in-law did, but they didn’t recognize my voice. I drove past the herd in my truck and turned them around. As we neared the hole in the fence, I struggled to get all of them back in the pasture. I would get eight or ten cows in, and as I went after the rest, those cows came back out.
I needed someone to stand in the gap and keep those cows in the pasture while I went after the rest. I called my father-in-law, who had a new “bag-phone” in his tractor, hoping he would send a farmhand to help me. Instead, he told me to put a few rocks from the road in an empty feed sack and shake it. The cows will follow you back into the pasture, thinking you have feed. Sounds crazy, but it worked. I looked like the Pied Piper, shaking my bag of tricks with 40 head of hamburger in tow.
They walked right back into the field behind me, and I threw the sack down for the lead cows to roll around with their noses. Meanwhile, I circled back and wired up a cattle panel to hold them in until we could fix the fence properly. The cows were really bellowing at this point. Some were hollering, trying to get to the front of the herd, while the lead cows were no doubt hollering about the empty sack. I think they were all giving me a cattle cussing for the dirty trick I played on them.
This is not a foolproof trick, but cattle that are used to being fed range cubes will follow an empty sack. In a pinch, I’ve put up two bulls with a white Sonic sack and a few ketchup packets being shaken. They may not know my voice, but they know what comes out of a paper sack is good to eat — that is, until you trick them a time or two.
I have observed a similar scene being played out in our churches time and time again. A saint looks through the fence at greener grass in the ditch. As they walk the fence, reaching for it, they find a weak spot and get loose. The ditch is green, but the grass is short and sparse. At the first rattle of a feed sack, these saints remember where the real feed is and come back home.
Those are the happy stories of wandering saints brought back to the nourishing care of a faithful church. But what of those saints who got out chasing greener grass and never came back? Many of them heard the shaking of a familiar sack. They heard a strange voice, but recognized the bag and followed it. This time, however, they end up in a strange pasture, and the feed sack was just a bag of rocks. They had fallen for the oldest trick in the book. They judged a feed sack by its cover.
Many preachers today are carrying the same Bible we carry. They stand in pulpits and preach just like we do. But there is no nutrition in their message — it’s just a bag of rocks. They use our book and bag to shake out self-help, self-gratification, and self-promotion. They teach you how to be a better you, how to get what you want. They claim God wants you to stand up for — “you!” You are the most important thing in your world.
This is an appealing message because it gratifies our fleshly desires. God and His Word are just a means to an end, and the end is for us to get what we want. This is a totally different feed than what God’s herd has been fed. The stock of God has been raised on yielding their bodies to the Lord. They are called to die daily, put others first, and love their neighbor as themselves. The feed coming out of our sacks should be fattening for a life of sacrifice and service. This is a strange food that raises us to succeed in a world that is not our home.
My fear is that good farmers will sprinkle some strange feed in with their good feed in an effort to keep everyone happy and in the fence. This will only lead to weakening of the herd and a blurring of the line between real spiritual food and the stuff they are shaking out all around us.
I know the grass gets short at times in your pasture. I’ve looked at those green ditches myself, but they ain’t what they appear to be when you get in them. Please hear my word of warning before you make a hole in the fence. You will likely be leading others out of the pasture with you, and some of them may not come back. There is great danger in leaving a faithful church when the grass gets short.
As a people called to give ourselves for the good of others, let us lead by example. Stay with the Word and model what it means to be a faithful Christian even when the grass gets short and looks greener everywhere else. Just because they wave a Bible around doesn’t mean you should eat at their trough. Don’t fall for a bag of rocks.
