A Comfort

...your rod and your staff— they comfort me.

A shepherd uses both a rod and staff as tools. The rod was a means of protection against evil. it was a club-like weapon that could be used to strike at predators. The staff was a more gentle means of guidance for the sheep.

What are the predators in your life? What are the ways in which God protects you from evil? How does he provide guidance?

As I was reading the material in preparation for working with the youth, I was thinking about rod and staff in a whole different way.

C.S Lewis says that we are born with an innate ability to determine good from evil. Is this ability a way that God protects us from evil?

And haven't you felt God's gentle guidance? He never forces a choice on us, but if we listen, he will guide us.

Direction in life. The ability to judge good from bad. Isn't that a comfort?