Friday, November 16, 2007

"young shepherd" (Korean UBF, ca. August 2006)

(Excerpted from http://www.livejournal.com/users/rsqubf/90112.html)

UBF Obedience (posted by human12)
2006-08-21

[Translated from Korean]

I am the young shepherd who asked a question about obedience in post 1386. Thank you so much for your answer in post 1385. However, my shepherd is telling me that it is not true obedience if I only obey what makes sense to me. My shepherd tells me that it is true obedience if I can obey what does not make sense to me at the moment. So even though I ask my shepherd to give me a reason why I should obey such an instruction, he/she never gives me an answer. I am really frustrated with this situation. Should I just obey my shepherd without asking any question in this situation?

...

Hi. I am a young shepherd who has been greatly encouraged by reading the recent graceful and encouraging posts by many shepherds. I have a question regarding obedience. How do you shepherds practice obedience? Of course I try to obey based on the Bible. However it is very difficult for me to obey my shepherd, who even becomes angry at me, when my shepherd tells me to obey something that does not make any sense. I am not talking about the difficulties that I have to face if I have to obey my shepherd. I am saying that obeying my shepherd itself is very difficult for me. It really hurts me when my shepherd gives me a direction with explicit anger and bitterness. Then I guess I don't want to obey my shepherd to preserve my dignity as a human being? I understand that even shepherds are not perfect. But how can I obey a man? Why should I obey a mere man? When my shepherd asks me to obey with anger and bitterness something that doesn't make sense to me, I feel like I have been degraded to a dog which is asked to run after a stick thrown by its owner. I would appreciate any graceful and clear answer to my question. Thank you for reading.