Got Goats?

A Cute Happy Goat, 2023

Charcoal on newsprint

18" x 24"

I’ve heard it said that, “what the devil can’t destroy, he distracts.” This statement is so true. Whether you believe in him or not, the devil is very real and he is on a mission; that mission - to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). This may all sound very dramatic but sometimes all he needs to do to accomplish his goal is throw a couple of well timed distractions in your path. However, not all distractions are pure evil and the work of the devil. Some distractions are good, we may even call them “welcomed distractions.” Some distractions are amoral (they have no inherent morale strings attached one way or another), and some are just adorable. 

I recently wrote a post about the importance of prioritizing alone time with God. The post was actually from a three part series where I was attempting to recount all the incredible things that God had done for me (and through me) at the Masterpiece Collaborative Creative Arts Concert. In this particular post, entitled: The Victory Part 2: The Good Shepherd, I shared the tremendous impact that spending alone time in communion with God had had on well… EVERYTHING! Just seeking God for the pure sake of spending time with God had resulted in revelation, encouragement, comfort, inspiration, and ultimately an honest to goodness vision!

It’s funny how often God will use my own words to inspire me. Quite frequently, I will stumble across little notes in my purse spiral or scribblings in the margins of my Bible and think, “wow, that’s really insightful. What a good word!” It’s kind of a funny phenomena. Now, it’s not like I imagine that some stranger has broken into my house for the express purpose of leaving me little notes of encouragement, I’m not that far gone. But I do believe that God knows me. God knows how forgetful I can be and He also knows that sometimes I need reminding. As I am writing and thinking about this strange phenomena, it actually makes perfect sense that He would do this with my blog too. Before I attempt to construct a post, I always pray that the Lord will help me to share something that inspires and encourages people and points them to Him. I guess I count in the “people” basket. 

 

Anywho, it was as I was rereading the account of all that God had helped me to do at the concert when the Lord reminded me of the joy and importance of prioritizing alone time with Him. Just writing about that experience was a tricky undertaking that required the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. God did so many things! “How do I distill this down into the most critical parts?” I kept asking myself. “What are the right words? How do I even describe this?!” Long story short, the Lord gave me a victory - both at the concert as well as the victory of successfully cataloging the events with my words. And it was as I was basking in the glow of accomplishment and reviewing all that the Holy Spirit had helped me to express when the revelation re-dawned on me, “oh, yeah that’s right! Alone time with God on the trail was amazing! I gotta get back out there!” Like I said, God knows that sometimes I need reminding :).

So back out I went, trusty walking-stick in hand. About halfway down the entrance of the trail (which I affectionately refer to as “the runway”), I heard a funny noise - a distant but persistent: “nah… Naah… NAAAAAAH!” I stopped and surveyed both sides of the fence along the runway. It didn’t take me long to spot my neighbors’ three little goats running towards me, full-tilt. This was not the first time the adorable trio had come out to greet me on the runway, however, on this day they were extra enthusiastic. 

On our first meeting, the goats were curious but cautious. All the stories of goats I had heard over the course of my life had painted the animals as grumpy, malicious, little beings. “Be careful! They like high places and will jump on your car! Don’t turn your back or they will head-butt you!” And we all know that, “goats will eat anything!” But these little guys were nothing like that. The adorable pygmy goats were totally domesticated and affectionate, behaving more like dogs than the little monsters of legend. After some inspection and nonchalant “oh no, we’re totally not here for you. We just came over to taste-test these sticks,” the three eventually warmed up to me. They even asked me for pets. And that was that. It was all over. A few cuddles and a few photo ops and the goats had decided - I was kosher and they too wished to go on a trail hike. The little cuties followed me at a safe and respectful distance but made sure to keep the source of their cuddles within sight.

On this second encounter the goats apparently recognized me. And then it clicked - their persistent bleating was the goat equivalent of, “hey buddy, wait up!” The baby was the most friendly of the group and I smiled and laughed as he reveled in all the pets even more so than the last time. Caution was no longer necessary, they knew I was good for it. “Ok guys, thanks for saying ‘Hi’ but that’s enough. You go on back home.” “What a delightful surprise,” I thought to myself. “Wow, I’m going to have to rethink my prejudice of goats!” Little did I know that that was certainly not enough and they had zero intention of going back home. 

My new goats friends happily trotted along behind me, despite several attempts to dissuade them. I decided there was no serious harm in allowing them to follow me. After all, they weren’t hurting anything and the trail belongs to the whole neighborhood. Plus they were super cute and made me smile.

The goats seemed quite delighted that I had relented and they happily zig-zagged back and forth across the trail, taste-testing everything in their path. “This must be where that myth comes from,” I thought to myself, “They don’t seem to eat everything but they sure will try everything.” Normally at this point in my walk I would be deep in prayer, chanting “thank you, Lord. I love you, Lord,” with every breath and every step. I have found this to be a very simple and effective way of centering my thoughts on God and returning my heart to a place of gratitude; a sort of ‘prayer warm-up’ if you will. But not this time.  No chanting centering-prayers for me. This time I was totally enthralled by the adorable antics of my silly new friends and almost completely consumed by the near-impossible task of trying to capture them with my camera. 

I learned two things about goats that day:

1. Goats will taste-test anything.
2. Goats will not do anything you tell them to.

“Ok, smile! Oh, shoot! You moved again. No, wait! Come back over here where you were! Just look at me, you were just staring at me for like a minute straight!” Without fail, every time one of my little goats would strike an extra adorable pose (in the perfect light) they would inevitably turn away or move the second my camera snapped. “Oh well, I’m not here to take goat glamor-shots anyway,” I thought to myself. “I’m here to spend time with God not goats… but they are pretty funny. Perhaps I’m being too dogmatic. There’s no harm in giving them some of my attention too and who knows, maybe God sent them here to illustrate something for me.” If you have major ‘Holy Spirit alarm bells’ going off right now, you win! Ding-ding! Your gift of discernment is dialed-in and functioning perfectly! Sadly, mine was a little slow on the up-take on this occasion.

We made it to the clearing in a roundabout sort of way (after many failed photo attempts). The last time the goats had accompanied me on the trail they commandeered my beloved sitting rock. So, this time I though I would lead us to a place where we could all share and find a nice comfy spot. 

My sitting rock is at the crest of a hill, however, if you continue down and follow the trail through the woods it opens up into grass lands on either side. Deer often like to graze here and I figured my little herbivore companions would enjoy it too. “There, now there’s plenty of exciting new things to taste and keep you busy.” I smiled to myself, feeling pretty dang contented with the compromise I had concocted. I decided that I too would join them in a snack.  All that zig-zagging had really added on the extra steps and I was hungry. I pulled some apple slices and almonds out of my bag and made myself comfortable. “Ok, we got off to a bit of a rough start, goats. But let’s share a meal as friends and then we'll get to some nice Bible study ok?” 

For a brief beautiful moment it seemed as though my plan had worked. Two of the goats followed their tastebuds across the meadow while the third lay at my side, casting an adoring gaze my way every once in a while. I retrieved my Bible and a small notebook from my backpack and placed them in my lap. “Finally! Peace!” I began to jot down goat-notes, random thoughts and observations about their character. I began to ponder why the Lord chose sheep and goats specifically as illustrations in Scripture. Now that I had spent a little time with them the analogy seemed even more appropriate. I don’t know any sheep but I can only extrapolate they have very different dispositions. “Do sheep listen? Do they go where they are told? Because goats sure as heck don’t!” Pen in one hand, and pad balanced on my knee, I began to pet the goat at my side with my free hand. I think this was an unconscious reflex. I have lots of pets at home so the impulse to pet something furry at my side, totally on autopilot, is not all that surprising… but it was a huge mistake.   

As my thoughts began to shift from Goats to God, I removed my hand from the momma goat at my side to reach for my Bible. She shot me an extra targeted adoring gaze… then a loving nudge as if to say, “um, I think you forgot what you were doing. Ah-hem, cute goat here.” “No, sweetie, I need both of my hands. I’m all done with pets.” This too was out of pure reflex. The phrase: “I’m all done with pets” is a command that we have trained all of our animals at home to understand. I can attest that this declaration works wonders on Spinone but apparently has zero impact on neighbor goats. She nudged me again a little harder and made stronger eye-contact, “I said, EXCUSE ME! Cute goat here! I was enjoying that!” “Ok, ok,” I conceded with a half-hearted pet. The audacity! No pet would have been better than that pet and momma got right in my face to let me know it. She then got practically in my lap to investigate what could possibly be more interesting than petting a cute goat. For a fleeting moment it almost seemed as though she was reading the bullet points that I had scribbled down in my pad but then she reminded me that she was still a goat and tried to eat the page. “Hey! Not cool, goat friend!” I retorted back. “Ok, if you won’t let me write in peace then I’ll just put my note pad away where it’s safe.” I then turned my attention to my Bible, holding it up safely (all be it awkwardly) close to my face. And then the unthinkable happened… she went in for a taste. “Oh, NO YOU DIDN’T! Ok, that’s it! I guess were done! Come on I’m taking you back home.”

You might be thinking to yourself right now, “goats are goats, Angela, what did you expect?” Or perhaps you’re even wondering, “what’s the point of all this?” Well, I told you that silly story so I could ask you a very serious question: are there any “goats” in your life? And by that I mean: are there any distractions trying to steal your time, energy, and attention away from your designated time with God? Your goats might not be literal goats, though I guess they could be. Maybe your metaphorical goats look something more like Facebook notifications that pop up while you’re trying to read an online devotional. Or maybe they sneak in in the form of “important” phone calls that happen right in the middle of your Bible study (you know the kind that you just gotta take, like your husband calling to ask what kind of lettuce he should get for the party on Friday). And as I mentioned in the beginning, your distractions may not necessarily be something bad. Maybe it’s something fun, or cute. This might look like watching another episode of [whatever] on Netflix when you want to devote your time before bed to prayer. You know you only have an hour left but you just gotta know who-done-it! Or maybe you’re addicted to cute cat videos on YouTube. You tell yourself you’ll just watch a few more minutes and the next thing you know it’s 2:00 A.M.! Maybe your goat is not something that frivolous. Perhaps it’s something productive you actually need to do that day but, if you’re being totally honest with yourself, it can wait until later. Whatever your goat may be, the big question is:

1. Is it popping up right in the middle of the time I promised myself I would spend with God? 
2. And am I negotiating with it and allowing my distraction to call the shots?

We all have responsibilities and things we need to do in our day but the fact of the matter is: good relationships require nurturing. Friends make time for one another and if we call ourselves Christians then making time for our friend Jesus should be somewhere on the to-do list. This week I challenge you to search your heart and your schedule for goats. And if you find any remember: they may be cute, they may be entertaining, they may even be good but goats are goats and there’s just no use in trying to negotiate with them. Stay vigilant and protect your alone time with God. He is so worth it!  

P.S. 
Now, before all my goat enthusiast friends get upset please allow me to clarify - I do not hate goats! Nor do I not hate these goats (even the one that tried to nibble on my Bible). I love my little goat friends and I love that they love me and chase me down. And I do not disdain spending time with my goat buddies, they are cute, and sweet, and they make me laugh. BUT even good things can become harmful if permitted to take up the time and space we have set aside for something else. The moment that I decided to compromise my plan I was in trouble. This was no fault of the goats, it was mine. Compromising my plan and allowing my focus to be split between God and a good distraction started me down a path which led me step by step further away from my goal (spending quiet alone time with God for an hour or two) and ultimately resulted in me abandoning what I set out to do all together. Like watching TV, goats are good during “goat time.” And enjoying goat time is perfectly fine just not at the expense of God time.