For those of you who may have happened to attend the Sara Groves concert on Saturday night, you just saw the title of this blog and said, "Hey! She went to the concert too!" For those of you who did not have the opportunity to be there, you are saying, "Um, what does Sara Groves have to do with buffalo?" Allow me....
I love Sara Groves. I remember the first time I saw her--she came to Open Door when Conversations was coming out for the first time. (It was later re-released with two additional songs). She was very pregnant with her son Kirby (now joined by brother Toby). There was just something about her that hooked me right away. She has an amazing way with words and writes incredible music to boot. I have looked forward to the release of every recording she has put out and was so excited to learn that she was going to be at Bethel this past weekend. I bought two tickets and Dan and I had a great date night planned. Unfortunately, Dan got really sick and spent the better portion of the weekend on the couch. My friend Katie came to the rescue and joined me for the concert. (I even got to have dinner with her and her husband Ben--not exactly a date night, but still way fun!).
Sara explained that this year has been a life-changing year for her and her family. She and her husband Troy had the opportunity to travel to Africa and get connected with a ministry that builds wells so that people don't have to walk miles on end for "clean" water. She mentioned that she had approached the trip expecting to teach the people in Africa something about God or bring something new to their faith. Instead, she learned so much from them and brought back new and exciting revelations from God.
Sara used an analogy to show how God got her attention. If you've seen the movie Dances with Wolves, you know the scene where the Sioux come over the side of the hill with Kevin Costner, only to find the whole field filled with buffalo carcasses. Someone had gotten there first and taken the best part of the buffalo for themselves. The Sioux were so devasted by this because they take great pride in using every single part of the buffalo in their lives, and someone had wasted so much of the animal. They eat the meat. They use the fur as coverings for their shelters. The bladder holds water. The bones can be made into tools. What God pointed out to Sara in the back of a van on the dusty roads in Africa was that she wasn't using her whole spiritual buffalo. He began to reveal to her things in her life that were being wasted. She began to notice that this could hold water or that could be made into a tool.
I love this analogy! And it made me really think about my own crazy life. What it not being used as it should be? What am I completely wasting? I don't necessarily have answers to those questions yet, but it certainly is the new topic of conversation between me and God. :)
So, are you using the whole buffalo?
1 comment:
wow. that's a great analogy. I wish I had been around. It was the s.h. fall retreat this weekend, and what an amazing time. I love the sh retreats because the leaders get as much out of them as the kids.
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