(An attempt at an Aesop-like fable with a gospel moral)

There was once a farmer who wanted to get his animals more organized and productive.  He decided to assign one of them to lead the others, but who should he assign?

The horses had a lot of talent, but tended to rebel and run wherever they wanted.  The cows were consistent, and stayed out of trouble, but were very passive.  The chickens were easy going, but lacked focus.  The pigs were a mess and never listened.  But the sheep - they mostly did what they were told, and didn’t bother anyone.  The farmer decided that one of the sheep should be the leader of these animals.  So the farmer called a meeting and told all the animals that this sheep would be the leader of all the farm animals.

The next day, the sheep told the horses that they would need to stay in the corral, and there would be no exceptions.  Some of the horses obeyed with resentment.  Others ran off and were not heard of ever again.

The sheep then talked to the cows, and set performance goals for them.  The cows quietly listened, and did not object.  No change in the cows behavior was noticed in spite of repeated reminders and reports.

The sheep then tried to organize the chickens into small groups.  Activities were planned for them, designed to help them be more mature.  Some of them responded, but the rest did not seem to listen.  High standards were set for the chickens - those who did not measure up felt guilty and just did their own thing, and began ignoring the sheep.

The sheep tried to clean up the pigs, but in the end the pigs and the sheep just got frustrated with each other.  The pigs rebelled against what the sheep said, and the sheep considered having the pigs removed from the farm altogether.

The lead sheep also worked with his fellow sheep.  He blamed them for the poor results he had with the other animals.  He told the other sheep that they needed to visit the other animals frequently.  If they did this, the other animals would come around.  He would hold the sheep accountable for the behavior of the animals that they were now responsible for.

After a while the farmer asked the lead sheep how things were going.  The sheep reported that the animals were not responding very well.  Some of the horses had run off, the pigs had rebelled, the chickens were ignoring him, and the cows had not changed.  His felt that his only hope was that his fellow sheep would help enforce his policies.

The farmer did not like what was going on.  He suggested that the sheep love the horses, and explain to them that there was safety in the corral.  He suggested that the sheep help the cows see the value of contributing to the farm, and help them to have a good experience helping out.  He encouraged the sheep to be patient with the pigs, and told him that the pigs had a bad reputation.  The pigs were not as dirty as they seemed.  He instructed the sheep to have fun with the chickens and help them feel loved.  They would come around in time.  He told the sheep to take it easy on his fellow sheep - let them know they are appreciated.

The sheep tried all of these suggestions, and began to slowly see some positive results.  In time he found that he really didn’t need to do all that much himself.  He just loved the other animals and stuck with the basics.  Things on the farm got slowly better.

Moral:  New leaders almost always exercise unrighteous dominion - the powers of heaven are based on principles of righteousness.