If you weren’t in Anderson, SC for the NCFCA National Championship or if you happened to sleep in on the day, my dear friend, co-founder of Lasting Impact!, Kristi Eskelund, gave her devotion… you really missed out! How often to you see a grown women hop into a inflatable llama!? But that wasn’t the most impactful thing that morning… the message was inspiring, uplifting, and a great reminder of what we needed to hear! If you missed it or need a reminder of what speech and debate can look like… read on…
(This is MOSTLY what I said, anyway….)
We here in Speech and Debate are very good at making an analogy or an abstract philosophical association, and I AM going to ask you to do that today. BUT, it is also highly instructive to deal with the very concrete things sometimes, and that is where I will begin today.
In my life after NCFCA – and I will testify to you that there IS meaningful life after the NCFCA – I’ve been involved in the oh-so-concrete matter of caring for sheep…real, live, actual sheep. Today I want to talk with you about just one aspect of caring for sheep, and that involves their wool.
The wool that sheep grow is a gift, and it’s an amazing material both practical and versatile. It can be spun into yarn, felted into cloth, dyed all different colors, woven in patterns, knotted into rugs, and even sculpted. It makes useful mats, batting, and all-natural stuffing. It’s water resistant, thanks to its natural oils, but can also hold up to 30% of its weight in water before it even feels wet. It will hold another 50% before it drips. This makes it highly useful as garden mulch, and the regenerative agriculture community is now producing wool pellets as a soil conditioner. A wool garment traps odors pulled away from the wearer. It’s fire resistant. It’s long-wearing. Wool functions environmentally to capture carbon. It’s renewable and sustainable. There are many varieties of wool (soft, springy, long, curly) that open up a variety of applications. Wool is amazing in SO MANY ways. And, remember, it is a God-given commodity, not something man-made.
Your gifts are like this too. They are useful, varied, broadly applicable, and God-given. When my sheep are in full wool, they are adorable! People literally stop in front of my farm and look at the sheep and smile. This is what you look like here today with your gifts honed in to your very best case, your best performance, your best delivery. I believe God smiles when He see you!
Do you know what comes next for my sheep? I shear them! Why would I do such a thing?? I shear them because if the sheep keep their wool, they come to harm. I have to trim the wool from around their eyes regularly or the oils in the wool will blind them. Perhaps you’ve encountered the idiom, “pulling the wool over someone’s eyes?”
Additionally, the wool catches and traps a lot of dirt and debris from their environment. That wool works a bit like Velcro and it holds everything it collects! Here is a shepherding truth: the thicker the wool, the dirtier the wool. With a thick coat of dirty wool comes potential for infection during lambing or accidental injury. Ultimately, the wool will weigh down the sheep and weary them. So, a good shepherd shears the sheep. They are funny looking at first! They are humbled and they don’t even recognize each other until they use their voices. This, however, is when I can see any physical problems that may have been lurking under all that wool, and it’s much easier to treat those issues without the wool in the way. This humbling of the sheep allows them to be seen accurately. It also sets the stage for new and fresh growth.
Of course, I am the one who keeps all that wool. What can my sheep do with their wool? Think about it…what can they really do with it? If the sheep keep their wool, it is wasted. All those amazing uses for wool I mentioned earlier require a skilled hand, a great deal of refining, and a master vision. My sheep are adorable but they do not have skilled hands. My sheep have distinct personalities but they have no capacity for refining their wool. My sheep are my great delight, but they do not have a master vision. Neither do we, as sheep of the Lord’s pasture have the skill, the capacity, or the vision to put our gifts to the best use. You are growing wonderful, useful abilities and gifts, but they are not FOR you. They are for our Very Good Shepherd to use as He sees fit. Our humility with these gifts enriches our Shepherd.
And here is one more thing to consider: Wool is not terribly popular right now. How many of you have an authentic wool sweater that you wear? How many have one made of polar fleece? The market, you see, is flooded with this plastic alternative that is cheaper, and softer, and easier. You are going to have to take your gifts into a world that is simply not interested in the scratchy Truth you have or the relationship you claim with your Shepherd. That doesn’t make it less true or less useful and sustainable, but it does mean that the Master Vision is essential, and we MUST submit what we have to the Lord. He has more uses for our gifts than we begin to imagine!
Let me sum up the take-aways:
1) You have gifts – wonderful, useful, sustainable, versatile, God-given gifts.
2) Your humility with these gifts enriches the Shepherd. Giving them into His hands also allows you to see yourself accurately before him.
3) Your gifts and talents and abilities are not for your glory. They will ultimately cause you trouble and weigh you down. They are meant to serve the Kingdom in a practical way.
4) You must be the real deal in a world that loves the plastic counterfeit.
Psalm 100: 3
Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Kristi Eskelund is the cofounder of Lasting Impact! But her background is first and foremost that of a teacher, with a long background in speech, debate, and drama. Kristi competed as a youth in what was then the National Forensics League. She has been a high school English and Speech teacher for over 30 years, teaching in public schools, college extension courses, and home school classes. She has seen her four oldest children through to adulthood, and she currently teaches a home school literature course and works as a substitute teacher in rural North Carolina public schools.
On the personal side, Kristi is married to Retired USMC Colonel Dave Eskelund, and after moving with the Marine Corps for 30 years, Kristi is glad to be settled on a 25-acre farm where she and the Colonel raise sheep, chickens, bees, and lots of garden things.
Kristi will be taking coaching appointments this fall! Sign up for a coaching session with her or one of the other amazing coaches in the SHOP.
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