{"id":2984,"date":"2023-09-14T07:49:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T11:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2984"},"modified":"2023-09-14T07:50:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T11:50:01","slug":"a-different-kind-of-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/a-different-kind-of-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"A Different Kind of Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sheep2-1024x685.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2985\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sheep2-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sheep2-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sheep2-768x514.jpg 768w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sheep2-624x417.jpg 624w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Sheep2.jpg 1157w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To listen to this reflection as a podcast,<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.us17.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=c4927dfbefb9749e5fef1581d&amp;id=2324d05c1b&amp;e=5cd2a880e9\">click here<\/a><br>&nbsp;<br>Universities and professional sports franchises are famous for picking tough-sounding nicknames for their football teams.<br>&nbsp;<br>That\u2019s why this fall the Wolverines, Badgers, Jaguars, Tigers, Panthers, Cougars, Bears, and Lions will all take the field.<br>&nbsp;<br>Those are some pretty fierce animals.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>There will also be some angry birds:&nbsp; Eagles, Falcons, Ravens, Warhawks, Skyhawks, and Seahawks, among others.<br>&nbsp;<br>Some nicknames feature tough people:&nbsp; Vikings, Giants, Buccaneers, Fighting Irish, and Boilermakers.&nbsp; OK, maybe that last one is just semi-tough.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Then there are those college nicknames that defy categorization:<br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The University of California \u2013 Santa Cruz <em>Banana Slugs<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The University of Arkansas \u2013 Monticello <em>Boll Weevils<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Long Beach State <em>Dirtbags<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The University of South Carolina \u2013 Sumter <em>Fire Ants<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The University of Akron <em>Zips<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Earlham College <em>Hustlin\u2019 Quakers<\/em> (they apparently aren\u2019t very fierce, but they do sound pretty fast)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Salisbury University features the Sea Gulls.&nbsp; Years ago they called themselves the Salisbury Steaks, and their head cheerleader dressed like a bottle of A1 Sauce.&nbsp; I\u2019m not making that up.&nbsp;<br><br>Who needs to win a national championship when you have the best nickname <em>ever<\/em>?<br><br>There\u2019s one animal that won\u2019t be featured this fall, or any time soon.&nbsp; No sports team \u2013 college or pro \u2013 has ever tried to intimidate its foes by calling themselves the Sheep.<br><br>Sheep, to put it bluntly, are not particularly bright.&nbsp; They\u2019re skittish.&nbsp; They play Follow the Leader, even when the leader is leading the flock over a cliff.&nbsp; They have no claws, no threatening teeth, no wings, no breakaway speed, and no attitude.&nbsp; In short, sheep are fundamentally defenseless.&nbsp;<br><br>That\u2019s why it ought to get our attention when Jesus tells his followers, \u201cI am sending you out like sheep among wolves\u201d (Matthew 10:16).&nbsp;<br><br>Not many wolves are going to lose sleep over that.<br><br>A sheep\u2019s list of <em>Things to Do Today<\/em> never includes frontal assaults, sneak attacks, or safety blitzes.&nbsp; Instead, a sheep\u2019s job assignment is straightforward: stay near the shepherd, listen to the shepherd, go wherever the shepherd goes.&nbsp;<br><br>Sheep are not heroic animals.&nbsp; Jesus appears to be saying that for God\u2019s reign to come to earth, it will take a different kind of hero \u2013 a sheep that devotes its life to hearing and responding to the voice of the Good Shepherd.<br><br>Maybe that\u2019s why, in order to show us how to live like that, Jesus identified himself as the Lamb of God.&nbsp;<br><br>If we want to root for what God is doing in the world, we\u2019re not going to find any sheep-themed \u201cspirit wear.\u201d<br><br>Then again, we always have that other option.<br><br>We can cheer for the Saints.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To listen to this reflection as a podcast,&nbsp;click here&nbsp;Universities and professional sports franchises are famous for picking tough-sounding nicknames for their football teams.&nbsp;That\u2019s why this fall the Wolverines, Badgers, Jaguars, Tigers, Panthers, Cougars, Bears, and Lions will all take the field.&nbsp;Those are some pretty fierce animals.&nbsp;&nbsp;There will also be some angry birds:&nbsp; Eagles, Falcons, Ravens, Warhawks, Skyhawks, and Seahawks, among&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/a-different-kind-of-hero\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[116,636],"class_list":["post-2984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-following-jesus","tag-sheep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2984"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2987,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions\/2987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}