Sheep are strange creatures, strange strange creatures.

Sheep have a tendency to do strange things, like running full-on into rocks, or suddenly sitting down in the grass for no reason.

And sheep aren't very acrobatic creatures either. Think about it, have you ever seen a sheep do a forward roll? Okay, how bout intentionally. Sheep don't do forward rolls or cartwheels, no handstands or headspins, think about it, sheep don't even walk sideways. At most, maybe they stumble backwards and forwards, but never sideways.

Sheep go forwards, that's what they do. And sometimes backwards, but never very far nor for very long. Mostly, they go where their heads point.

And that, mein freunde, is the point I'm trying to get at, in a very, very roundabout fashion (and roundabout fashion doesn't refer to clothes for plus-sized people. Har de har har)

In a lot of ways, we're like sheep. We tend to go where we're focused.

Not with our physical bodies, not really, more with our minds. We tend to go where we focus ourselves. You focus on God and you'll go to God, in the same way that sheep that focus on the shepherd go to the shepherd.

And when the sheep spend their time focusing on where they're not allowed to go, they tend to go there.

Yes friends, that's us.

You know how to get out of sin? Not by focusing on it, constantly telling yourself not to do it, not that. When the shepherd blocks off a piece of land because it's filled with thorns and briers, but the sheep start focusing on those pieces of land, they'll gravitate to it. And when the shepherd reminds them not to, the sheep ends up focusing so much on not going to the patch of thorns and briers that it doesn't spot the patch of mud it ends up getting stuck in. Sometimes we end up ignoring the one big sin that the smaller ones creep up on us. We focus so much on getting away from the big things that the small ones kill us slowly. It's like the ancient chinese death by a thousand cuts, small almost insignificant slices being cut away and, before we know it, we're dying spiritual deaths.

And sometimes we focus on the distractions, on the hobbies and little fun things we can do to take our minds off of things. We end up being like sheep so focused on one patch of grass that we lose sight of everything else, the entire field that the shepherd's given for us to graze in.

The only way our lives turn out right and fine is when we get our focus right. When the sheep focus on the important things, then the sheep turns out fine.

Focus on God first, and you'll see that everything else follows

Whether it's getting out of a sin that you're stuck in, finding a solution to a messed up situation, or searching for answers to any question, focus on your shepherd.

I'm going to echo the words of Matthew 6:33,
"seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."