Fancy running with the bulls?

Who do you know who is scattered and distressed — and likely to be gored if they stay on the same path? Gordon Allan asks

Have you ever thought, “people do the strangest things”? In my head the thought is usually followed up by the question, “Why?”; closely followed by the supplementary question, “Just why?!”

The Pamplona Running of the Bulls is one such case in point. It is a 400-year-old tradition that takes place in the second week of July in the Spanish town of Pamplona, where men run in front of bovine battering rams through the streets of the town and try to avoid being trampled and gored.

I took an intake of breath when I learned that the historical name of the bull-minders was “pastores” — well that’s one thing that’s certainly not on this pastor’s to-do list!

In Matthew 9:35-36 it tells us that, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

“Harassed and helpless” literally meant “distressed and scattered” or “rent and mangled as if by a wild beast.” The Lord Jesus shared the good news and supernaturally demonstrated the Kingdom, but he also saw carnage, wounds and brokenness in the lives of people. Two things happened as a result. Jesus was moved by compassion (v36) and he called for workers (v38).

Seeing the need is awareness, doing something to meet the need is action. I have been to a rodeo where a rider was thrown by a bull, trampled on and had to be stretchered off the field for a helicopter ride to hospital. There is no way this mangled man would have been left lying in the dirt while the next part of the contest took place. MPower men, who in the orbit of your life is harassed and helpless?

Who do you know that is scattered and distressed, i.e. running away from who and where they used to be, living one step ahead in the bull-run of life but is likely to be gored if they keep on the same path?

Invite the Lord’s compassion and his call over your life to shape you and send you. Step in and make a real Kingdom difference in someone’s life today. Call them, meet them for a coffee, have Jesus’ compassion for them, connect them to Christ, continue to pray for them and commit yourself to discipling them. Their circumstances, challenges and conditions aren’t the end point. Your call could be the starting point of their lifelong journey with Jesus.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.