“Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.” (Ecclesiastes 4:13)
Change is not easy. Oftentimes, it is not that we wouldn’t like a change, we just don’t know how to bring it about. It’s easier to keep things the way they are. We know how to do what we’ve always done. We know how to ride out a storm in the boat; we don’t know how to walk on water.
An old dog can be taught new tricks, if he trusts that the new is of God. When God calls us to a new thing, He has every intention of helping us every step of the way. “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them” (Isa. 42:16).
There are times when the pillar of the cloud is on the move. Yes, we are off into the dry, trackless desert, but we have the promise of our God: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isa. 43:19)
Sheep don’t have to be smart. They just need to know the voice of their Shepherd.