Pastor’s Corner | Don’t fence me in

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

I live in northwest Arkansas which is known for the beautiful Ozark Mountains.

There is a lot of beautiful county. But there is something else that northwest Arkansas is known for - I call it urban sprawl. Where there were once pastures full of cattle and horses there are now asphalt parking lots and shopping malls and subdivisions. I suppose some folks need places to shop. But I prefer a place where I can saddle up and ride amongst the cattle without hearing the constant roar of traffic. My roots involved living on a ranch where my work day started with saddling up a horse and riding the beautiful country to check the cows. It was a rural lifestyle that I appreciate now much more than I did back then.

Now I live on five acres next to a busy highway. As I am writing, the sounds of motorcycles and vehicles with no mufflers are invading what should be a quiet home. We have a huge yard but when we decide to go outside to work in the yard or to play we cannot hear each other because of the traffic.

Now I’m not trying to complain about our current living situation. In fact I feel very blessed. We lived in an apartment complex before the Lord provided this house that sits on one acre and has four acres of pasture for our horses.

Thank you Lord for what you provided! But I still have this suffocating feeling of being fenced in as urban sprawl has taken over.

I think it’s OK to feel this way. After all, God created Adam and Eve and put them in the middle of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was not a nice little quaint flower garden with a bird bath in the middle and a park bench or two to sit while you feed the pigeons. When you think of the Garden of Eden think of Yellowstone National Park on steroids. This is where God intended man to live.

No noise except the sounds of birds animals, water and wind blowing through the trees. It is a place where never is heard a discouraging word as folks talk and laugh together

So I believe that in each of us God has put this “homing device” to call us back to Eden-like conditions. This is why you find flower gardens on the roof tops of tall buildings in the concrete jungle. This is why cowboys feel fenced in when their space is being gobbled up by developers. So they yearn for open spaces. But God has given us something much better than freedom in wide open spaces. He has given us the opportunity for freedom in our souls. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he cut the fence that kept us slaves of sin.

We are now free to experience an abundant life of joy and forgiveness.

So even if you are stuck in a city or a situation you don’t want to be in. You can still be free.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).

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Tim Wallace is pastor of Cross Brand Church. To contact him, e-mail tim@ crossbrand.org. For more of Tim’s articles, go to www.

tallinthesaddle.wordpress.

org.

Church, Pages 2 on 05/05/2010