Animal Behavior Indicators

I was fooling around today and thought I’d come up with a list of 10 suggestions for keeping your sanity in church, or anywhere for that matter. It’s a little on the light side. Have fun!:

1. Be suspicious of all authority figures, especially those who bullishly claim to be.
2. If you feel herded and corralled like a breeder cow, break rank and fence.
3. Trust your animal instincts. Especially if a leader tells you it’s wrong to think that way.
4. If someone insists she’s a sheep, sniff for a wolf.
5. If you are told it is for your own good, turn on your heels like a spooked coyote and run!
6. Don’t be the eternal optimist who, furiously digging through all the manure, exclaimed, “There just MUST be a horse in here somewhere!” There is no horse.
7. If you think you smell a rat, you smell a rat.
8. If a leader acts like a weasel, then he or she’s a weasel.
9. Peacocks and pulpits do not belong together.
10. If a leader uninvited roots around in your personal life like a pig for truffles, kick him in the snout.

I’m a pastor so I can say these things.

The fine art photograph is the creation of my friend Mark Hemmings and is from his Snow Monkey series.