Stray Sheep & Cabin Fever

WESTERN WISDOM  "Stray Sheep & Cabin Fever" audio podcast by award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Sponsored by BlyBooks.com Legacy Series. 
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Transcript

SOLITARY SHEEP
Stephen Bly
Circa 1996 

Enrique Borba spent most of his life running sheep in the mountains around Winnemucca, Nevada. It’s a lonely life, to say the least. The rolling, treeless mountains and sage scattered valleys might make a good place for sheep. But it leaves a lot missing for people. Very few folks are really cut out for spending most of the year without another human to talk to.  

The stories are legend about sheep herders going crazy out in the hills after months and months by themselves. They begin to talk to the sheep, see imaginary towns, wander off and get lost, and the like. Enrique notes he was fortunate never to have gotten quite that bad. 

“Lucky for me,” he wrote, “the boss could tell when I had just about had it. And those times he sent me to town for supplies.” 

Sent to Town Philosophy 

The boss, of course, brought all the supplies out to Enrique’s wagon. There was no need for him to go to town. But the term “going to town for supplies” didn’t mean you had to purchase anything. It meant you headed back into civilizastion until your mind cleared up again. 

God created very few folks who can withstand sustained separation from other people. Maybe that’s why solitary confinement is one of the most dreaded punishments in our prisons. If ordinary people need some contact with other humans, individual Christians need contact with other  believers even more. 

Strays in the Flock 

All we like sheep tend to go astray (1 Peter 2:25). The Christian faith wasn’t designed to be lived separate from the community of believers. For instance, many spirirtual gifts are given only for the benefit of the whole fellowship, not single individuals.  

The Bible says, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). 

What normally happens to the isolated Christian? This is one who has, on their own, decided to withdraw from all fellowship with other believers. 

We Need Spiritual Shepherds 

Solitary sheep can wander into biblical error. Or lose self-discipline. They’re liable to enter into unbiblical relationships. Or develop an inflated idea of their own spiritual wisdom. And sometimes they become very experiential by basing their life on their own dreams and experiences.  

If caught before the withdrawal progresses too far, such behavior can be cured. What we need to do is force them to “go to town for supplies.” That is, we may have to load them in the car and force them back into fellowship.