Sunday AM:

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me…

When I was listening to this, I thought about this song from Bob, about Ruben Carter:

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It’s my work, he’d say, and I do it for pay
And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise

When I think about teaching or about the general choices made in my own life, I’ve been lucky (or wise ?) to almost always be doing what it is I want to be doing. I’ve rarely spent much time just gettin’ paid. How do you explain this to your kids or other people’s kids without sounding like a crazed old man?

John 10:11-15