Bummer
I find it very interesting where words or phrases come from sometime. I have repeated things that I heard people say and had no idea what the words actually meant or where they originated. One of those phrases was “don’t be a Jehu”. I repeated that at times calling people who made poor decisions “a Jehu”. In bible study last week, the leader of the study began talking about King Jehu and I finally realized where the phrase came from.
Jehu was even anointed King by one of my favorite prophets, Elijah! Jehu was anointed basically to do one thing. Remove the evil queen Jezebel, her lineage, and her influence from the earth. He used that anointed power and did so swiftly which pleased God and resulted in God’s favor on him and his sons. Sadly Jehu chose to worship golden calves and failed to follow God’s plan. He operated in an anointing, but stopped following God. His poor choice caused someone to coin the phrase, “don’t be a Jehu”. Yes I used the phrase “coin the phrase”, to spotlight my point. I heard someone use that phrase many times and adopted it into my own vocabulary. Since phrases of importance, such as “In God we trust”, are place on coins, someone established this phrase and other repeated over time.
Sadly, we don’t learn to only repeat good and positive phrases, but we learn to repeat filth as well. Curses and foul phrases pour out of coaches and parents mouths, which is then repeated by youth creating a sad cycle of influence. Many even take the Lord’s Name in vain and I am not even sure if they know what they are saying, but they are repeating phrases that have been passed on to their ears by people of influence in their lives.
To me, that is a bummer! A phrase that became popular during my high school days. Googles says the word’s origin came from a German word bummlar, meaning “loafer”. The English word had a similar meaning “Bum Deal or Bum Rap”.
In researching the word, I stumbled upon an article that talked about a “bummer Lamb”. The article talked about when some lambs are born for some reason their mother rejects them, refusing to nurse or take care of them. The mother will often chose one twin and completely reject the other, causing the lamb to feel the pain of rejection and the lamb will often die.
This is a link of an example of a bummer lamb. https://youtu.be/09_xcLzNc4k
Sometimes though a good shepherd will take the lamb in and show it the love of a father and nurse it until it is strong enough to join the flock. What a powerful lesson this is as so many of us are rejected in one way or another in life. Sometimes by loved ones, sometimes by close friends. I for some reason spent ten years receiving one rejection after another when it came to applying for college head coaching positions. I heard many people tell me that I was not cut out to be a head coach, even people I loved dearly.
It was during that time that my Heavenly Father often took me in and showed my unconditional love. Replacing doubt, He spoke life, truth and taught me how to overcome. His word told me exactly who I am, no matter what anyone said or how many times I was looked over for positions. The good shepherd showed me how to follow his ways which are higher than the world’s ways. It is because of this that I have become who I am. I owe all of my success over my entire career to my Savior, the GREAT I AM!
God sent His little lamb into the world as our savior and the world rejected Him. Psalms 118:22 says that He was the stone the builders rejected to use as the foundation cornerstone. Still today many Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah. What was God’s response? Jesus loved us even through all the pain on the cross and even spoke life in His final few hours on the cross as He said, “Father forgive them…” How can a love be that amazing? To actually forgive and love those who rejected Him?
The Bible is made up of many heroes of the faith who were rejected. Great men like David and Joseph were both rejected by their own brothers.
Another interesting fact that was mentioned about bummer lambs is that after the shepherd takes them in and feeds, trains, and shows love to the rejected baby, the result is a bond between the shepherd and the lamb. I read that, because the bummer lamb is so used to the shepherd’s voice after he matures and returns to the flock, the rejected bummer lamb often becomes one of the leaders of the flock as he knows the shepherds voice intimately and the knows the ways of the shepherd.
So you have a rejected lamb, who gives into the Shepherd’s love and as a result builds a tight bond with their Savior and Shepherd. From rejected to leader of the flock!
We have all either endured rejection or will someday deal with it during our time on earth. The amazing promise and truth is our Father, the Great Shepherd will never reject us. He is there to protect, nourish, strengthen, and even when we have chosen to run away or allow ourselves to be trapped in sin, He is waiting with open arms to take us home. All we have to do is ask!
Yesterday, I went to a farmer’s house with one of my players and he took us out to his flock. He called for them and over a hundred sheep came from all over the field running to their shepherd. I asked the farmer if I could take a lamb to FCA to show the athletes a lamb while sharing the story of a bummer lamb. I laughed as my player chased this lamb around trying to catch it within the flock as they all scattered scared and in pure panic. As the 77 year old farmer saw the lamb sprinting by trying to get away, he dove and caught the lamb by the leg. The shepherd knew exactly how to both catch the lamb and how to protect it. He gave me a carry case to export the lamb to FCA. I put the lamb on a dog collar and tried to get him to relax as there was still 5 hours before FCA. I took him into my back yard and offered him food and water. Nothing could convince the lamb who was away from the flock, her mother, and the good shepherd that I was trying to help her. She simply would either run or find a corner and get into a position of defeat and kneel.
After FCA, I returned her to the flock and the good shepherd took her back to the field. It was dark, but when he let her out of the carry case, she called out and the flock called back. She took off running back to her family. I now know why God compares us to sheep. We tend to run, give in to defeat, and often are Jehu’s. If we would only just listen to and run to the Good Shepherd, He knows exactly how to take care of us.
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash