The story goes something like this. It’s a true story about a barn that was on fire. How the fire started or trying to save the barn was no ones concern when the fire was first noticed. The concern was to keep the cows out of the barn and that had become quite the task. It seems that from the time the barn started burning the cows began to move toward it and not just to watch. They were attempting to go into the barn, into the fire because for some reason their “cow sense” told them to do that. As you can imagine this was very problematic for the farmer. So he contacted his buddies and when they arrived they moved the cows into their trailers and took them to another part of the farm to prevent them from getting into the barn.
Now you might say it is stupid for cows to do this and you would be right. It is stupid. In fact only through brut force were the cows maneuvered to safety. They never changed their minds, they were always attempting to get to the barn even when they were finally in the trailers. They could only be moved by sheer power and they didn’t learn anything from the experience. In fact if the new barn would catch on fire today, the cows would try to get into that burning structure.
“… he who hates reproof is stupid“. Proverbs 12:1
No one wants to be the cow and everyone wants to be the farmer in the story. Just like, no one wants to be stupid and everyone wants to be the one that reproves. This is a common problem with christians. In their marriages, and in their relationships. When reproof comes they reject it, by making up reasons why they are in the right, then they condemn the person who brought it to their attention. So they continue to pursue the sin and if they stay on that course they soon will be hurt by it. It’s like the cows that cant seem to stop trying to get to the barn and only force can move them out of the situation. Because they never see themselves as the cow, they only see themselves as the one that should be reproving and never the ones that need reproof.
We are all worse than cows from time to time. We get something on our mind, we know we are not suppose to do it but we find ourselves doing it anyway. We know the Bible has told us not to do it, we know that when we see others do it we know they are wrong, we have heard sermon after sermon on the subject but still go after it, people have told us that we need to turn our lives around but we will not do it, people are constantly telling us there is a better life or telling us not to sacrifice the good life we have for sin or the fire that is in the barn, but we do it anyway. We find ourselves headed into the fire. Like a dumb cow we just cant get it off our minds. We ignore reproof and become the cow… and it’s stupid.
But what if we made sure that we weren’t the cow and made sure we had no desire to be the reprover. What if we listened and followed the voices God sends our way to help us live correctly. What if we followed those Godly voices and gave up our stupid cow syndrome? What if we quit being a mindless prideful christian and decided to wake our minds up, think and be self reflective ?
If we did we would find ourselves in a better day, with a better life that counted for eternity.
phillipbrande.com 