PASTURE MENTALITY

We have all experienced the distant persona of the dreamy depth of one with a "pasture mentality."  They seem to be staring into the wild blue yonder while we desperately strive to converse with them.  They give aloof answers to our queries with unimpressive ums while rubbing their stalwart, set chins.  It's hard enough to speak with one who is uninterested, but this pasture sort appears to not even be in the room, even as their dreaming, still body looms before us.  But, maybe we should take another look at these contemplative people to see what is really going on behind those blank, staring eyes.

Einstein and Edison were "pasture" types.  What do you mean by "pasture" types, you ask?  Pasture types are thinkers, creators, and inventors.  King David spent all of his early days tending the sheep in the dark of the nights, staring at the stars, strumming his harp, singing his songs, and composing writings that baffle even the God of heaven.  All of this occurred in the pasture, a lonely, still, breezy place where only the twinkling stars and the hazy moon dwell, along with some woolly wandering sheep.  Ah, the pasture!  It's a place where few like to go; it's smelly, itchy, dark, and gloomy, but it's a canyon of depth and a palace of plenty in the realm of universal mystery and heavenly insight.

Where would we be without the dreamers, the diggers, the seekers and the discoverers.  Somebody's got to dream it, see it, feel it, imbibe it before It Is!  And, it seems to happen with those who wander into the pasture, stumble into the desert, or sit on a shore engrossed in a vast never-ending ocean.  Anywhere can be a "pasture mentality;"  it happens in the mind, in the longing, delving spirit, in the one who moves away from the revelry of the crowd.

King David's depth happened in a pasture, and he stole the heart of Almighty God, because he observed creation from the secret places of his soul.  He saw and felt the most profound intricacies of life by doing one thing, looking Up.  We miss a lot of things in life by never looking up; we overlook the obvious flutter of the white dove above our heads, as we disgustedly stare at the snakes in the dirt.  There is a definite holiness involved in the posture of stillness, sitting at the feet of our Lord, and waiting for His impressions, His voice and direction in the solitude of looking Up. 

Oh, David, you taught us a valuable lesson, when your longing for the pasture caused you to open the terrace doors and step out onto the rooftop.  You traded glory for evil when you looked down on a bathing woman, instead of looking UP to the God who inspired you.  All of your whispers of undeniable strength in the beauty of your words, the giant of a man that you had become through your hunger for wisdom, and the purity of your very soul faded in the fleeting of a moment. 
David, you lost your "Pasture Mentality."
                                                                                                                                                        By Sheryl Fowler

(Visit promiselandchurch.net.  PromiseLand Church, Austin, Tx)