A Minute Meditation

“It is difficult to soar with the eagles when you work with a bunch of turkeys.” This sign was recently seen on a desk in a large office.

It is true that we are affected by those around us. Even if we regard our fellow workers as a bunch of turkeys, it should not inhibit our ability to soar above them. It may be difficult but it is not impossible. While we are in the world, we are not to be a part of it.

We cannot fly in formation with those of the world for they are all going in the wrong direction. If we really are part of their flock, then we are in trouble.

Another old saying of the world is “birds of a feather flock together.” So while we may be working with a bunch of turkeys, we really do need to take off and soar above them as the eagles do.

Isaiah speaks of a day when “we shall mount up with wings as eagles.” If we hope to do that in the future, we are required now to leave the other kinds of birds to their gobbling and strutting. We need to get on with our service to our Lord by soaring above the turkey talk of the flock at work or school.

We may not like to think of some of our worldly associates as spiritual turkeys but we need to read carefully what Paul says. “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.” It is a sad commentary on the human race that these sins are so common that we would have to leave the world in order to have no association with such people. If this was true in Paul’s day, it is also true today.

So what are we to do? We want to soar with the eagles and we are surrounded by turkeys. Well, by being an eagle, we can soar above them and not partake of their evil deeds.

Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father on our behalf saying, “I have given them thy word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as! am not of the world. I request not that thou wouldst take them out of the world but that thou wouldst keep them out of the evil: of the world they are not, even as I am not of the world.”

So, we should not be discouraged that we have to work or go to school with a bunch of turkeys. The world is full of them but it is important that we continue to soar above them in the way we talk and act. Turkeys gobble and make a lot of noise but not much sense. That is a good parallel to empty and vain conversation. How often do we sound like turkeys?

It may be hard to soar with the eagles but it is not impossible, for if God is for us, who can be against us? With Paul we can say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

When our Lord comes, we had better not be strutting around the turkey pen with all the rest of the turkeys, sounding and acting like them. Jesus said, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”

Let us make sure that we are as different from the world as eagles are from turkeys. Again the Master said, “I have told you these thing so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world.”

The fog is thick, and it is misting as the driver tries to make his way along the curvy road in the darkness. Suddenly, another automobile passes him going considerably faster and obviously knowing the twists and turns that had the first driver baffled.

Seeing the tail lights about to disappear in the darkness, the driver speeds up so that he can follow the way of the confident driver now in the lead. The second driver smiles because he is able to go so much faster by following someone who knows the way.

After a considerable number of twists and turns, the lead car suddenly makes a sharp left turn and stops. The following car has to slam on his brakes to avoid a rear-end collision. He angrily gets out of his car and shouts to the car in front, “What right do you have to stop so suddenly without any warning?” The driver is startled by the accusation and replies, “Well, I am parked in my own driveway.”

The driver who decided to follow learned a couple of valuable lessons. It is possible to make more progress if you follow someone who knows the way. But it is important to follow someone who is going where you want to go, otherwise you may end up where you did not want to be.

Paul told us, “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ.” It is important that we follow someone who will lead us in the right direction. Jesus told us that he is, “the way, the truth and the life.” He called many disciples to him by saying only two words: “Follow me.” It is right that we follow someone like Paul because he will lead us in the way that Christ would have us to go.

But how do we know the one we are following is leading us to Christ or away? It is important for us to have a good idea ourselves just what the right way is. How do we know the way?

The Bible is our road map to lead us to Christ. We must constantly check our progress by reading the map. We must not allow someone else to lead without personally checking up to be sure that we are going in the right direction. Those who lived in Berea searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was telling them was so. This means that wise men even checked up on Paul before following him.

We remember leading a long string of cars who were following us down a dead-end road. As we turned around at the end and waved to each as we came back, all our followers realized that we were lost.

Making a wrong turn on a road may waste some time, but making a wrong turn on the road to the kingdom can be disastrous.

Jesus talked about the blind leading the blind and all falling into the ditch. The road to destruction is a broad way as our Lord told us and “many there be that go in thereat because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it.”

Let us make sure that we are in the way of life, that the ones we are following are going where we want to go. We also need to make sure that those who are following us are being led in the right way.

Jeremiah tells us that the Lord said, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”