Like Sheep Among Wolves

 Like Sheep Among Wolves

“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves.”
— From Matthew 10

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There’s a lot of talk these days about being on the “right side.”
The right side of democracy. The right side of science. The right side of history.
Even the right hashtags, pronouns, causes, or candidates.

And maybe some of it matters. But a lot of it—if we’re honest—is just noise. A scramble to appear righteous, or at least relevant. We’ve created a culture of posturing, branding, and signaling, even when no one’s asking. We want to be noticed. Approved. Safe.

But Jesus says something very different to His followers.

He says: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.”

Not influencers. Not strategists. Not soldiers or CEOs.
Sheep. Among wolves.

That’s not a message that gets you followers—or hired. It won’t win a campaign. It won’t pad your 401(k). And yet, it’s one of the clearest pictures Jesus gives of what it means to follow Him. You're not going to be the favorite. You're not going to win every argument. You’re going to be vulnerable. Exposed. Honest.

When I finished my B.A., I thought I had a good plan—an MBA at a Christian university, no less. It felt like the right side of everything: practical, spiritual, respectable. But when my dad asked what I really wanted to do, I said, “Maybe Marketing. Maybe Sales.” He paused. Gently, he said, “Sales can be hard for a Christian. People stretch the truth. Wine and dine. Say things that aren’t really so.”

He was right.

I found it hard to play the game. I couldn’t recommend a product I didn’t believe in. I hated the performative dinners and false charm. But what shook me more was discovering how deep the compromise ran—not just in business, but in churches, in politics, even in schools. Even in myself.

No profession, no institution, no person is entirely clean.
We bend. We look away. We protect what we’ve built. We call it “good enough.”

So yes, we really are sheep among wolves. And the wolves aren’t just out there. Sometimes they’re in the mirror.

But here’s the strange grace of it all:

It’s because the world is so full of wolves that we must be sheep.
Gentle. Steady. Joyful.
Not naïve, but not hard-hearted either.

If we can walk through this culture—this economy, this noise, this maze—with kindness and clarity and a refusal to wound others just to win, then maybe we become the rare kind of person Jesus was talking about. Someone whose integrity doesn’t need to shout. Someone who lives with a strange peace.

And maybe, just maybe, someone who reminds the wolves what light looks like.