A Minute Meditation

If you walk like a duck and quack like a duck, don’t be surprised if people think you are a duck. Don’t advertise what you are not, unless you want people to think you are what you are not.

This advice can be applied to every facet of our lives. We have all known young girls who dress in such a way that they advertise something they say they are not. If they are not that kind of girl, why are they advertising that they are?

Many people talk in such a way that everyone thinks that they are a certain kind of person, yet they claim that they are not. Why are they talking this way if they are not this way?

Paul tells us to “abstain from all appearance of evil.” By the way we dress, by the things we say we can easily give the impression that we are other than what we want God to believe that we are.

We are also known by the company we keep. If our friends are all ducks, we are almost certain to be thought of as a duck.

Are our dress, our conversation, and our friends all in keeping with our high calling? If not, why not? These things really do say a lot about us. Are we satisfied with what they are advertising us to be?

Would you want Jesus to see you in what you wear to the beach or swimming pool? He does see you even though you do not see him. Would you tell him the stories that you share with your friends when you are all relaxing in a casual atmosphere? He does hear what you say to them. Would you like to introduce your Lord to the friends you choose when you have a choice as to whom you want to be with? He does know who your friends are.

These kinds of thoughts boggled the mind of David and he says so in Psalm 139. “0 LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, 0 LORD. You hem me in — behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

The Lord Jesus tells us, “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

God knows even what you are thinking. We need to solve the sobering problem of not being mistaken for a duck by putting bird-brain thoughts far from us.

We are what we think and what we think will affect how we dress, who we associate with, and what we talk about.

Since God knows our thoughts, let us guard carefully what we think by associating with those whose thoughts are godly. Let us be careful what we read and hear, for these things will surely affect what we wear, where we go, and what we think. If we work at it diligently, we will put away duck-like thoughts and then duck-like quacking and duck-like walking will stop.

“They that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD and that thought upon his name.”

There is a modern day fable about two cats. The younger cat is busy going around in circles chasing its tail. The old cat just sits on the fence watching the antics of the younger cat as it gets dizzy going around and around.

Finally the old cat asks why the younger cat is so busy chasing its tail. The younger cat replies in a somewhat arrogant way that he has just returned from Cat College where he has learned that happiness is found in the tail of a cat. If he can just catch his tail, he believes he will achieve true happiness.

The older and wiser cat replies that he had not had the advantage of attending Cat College but has instead grown up in the back alleys and has graduated from the school of hard knocks. He also acknowledges that happiness is found in the tail of the cat. However, he has learned that the proper way to live is to go straight forward trying to do the right thing and that happiness will follow him all the days of his life.

There is a simple Bible message found in this fable that we do well to remember. Jesus told us that “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

If we spend all our time trying to save our lives, we lose it, just like the cat chasing its tail. But if we will forget about saving our life and become totally involved in service to God by losing our life in His service, then we end up with the very thing that the losers were trying to achieve.

It is interesting that the constitution of the United States guarantees its citizens the pursuit of happiness. We have the right to chase our tail but never catch it. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ guarantees us true happiness, lasting happiness in his kingdom, by forgetting the chasing of happiness now.

As the fable teaches, happiness is found in going straight ahead, forgetting the very things that most people chase. By doing that, the things others chase to no avail just naturally follow those on the straight path. People who are bent on only doing that which will please them end up the most selfish and miserable people on earth, while those who are always thinking of others and spending their time in service to God discover that in the process they really have achieved happiness.

Now we are concerned with a higher goal than the cats, but as the fable tries to teach, we need to forget about trying to save our life and instead give ourselves wholly and completely over to God and in so doing we will achieve true happiness and eternal life in His kingdom.

We are told by Paul, “let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself…That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”