Who are You Following?

I imagine by the time I lay out all that God has put into my heart on this subject, it will have many parts to it. But, this is the beginning. So, I start with a short story.

A man and his wife were attempting to drive their two cars home late one foggy night over a very curvy WV mountain road. The man was leading and he told the wife she would follow. It was incredibly difficult to see where he was going, but the wife simply had to follow the tail lights in front of her. Next thing she knew, to her amazement, she had followed him right over the side of the mountain, off the road. He jumped out of his car and started yelling at her, "why did you drive off the road?" She smiled at him and said very demurely, "Well, you told me to follow you."

Now, before any of you women jump on some sort of band wagon with this, there is no proof in this story as to why you shouldn't follow your husband. So, don't go there. Just don't.

We are all following somebody or something. Many of us follow a particular newscaster. Many follow all the latest trends. Most of us know all the latest details about the galaxy of stars in Hollywood. We follow a sports team, or the government, or our pastor, or a particular denomination. We are always following.

From the time our children are able to walk, we teach them to follow. We teach them to follow us. We teach them to follow their classmates. We tell them if they will stand in line at school and not question the teacher, then they are good and obedient. We instinctively teach a "herding" mentality. Think about it. When we are in school, we are herded from the class room to lunch, to the gym, to the playground, to the library, to the auditorium, and back to the class room again.

As our children grow, we give them the latest gadgets, MP3's, cell phones, hand-held whatever's, and they follow their peers, they follow the latest gossip, they follow, follow, follow. I mean, this is what we have been trained to do all of our lives, right? What else is there?

As Christians in a nation that is quickly losing interest in real Christianity, isn't it time to lead? Shouldn't we follow the Shepherd? Aren't there any better options? There are. I'm tellin' ya.

But how do we find these options? Do we watch the latest news report to find out? Do we ask our friends? Do we write a letter to "Dear Abby"? Nope. All this does is put us right back where we were. Following.

Be quiet.

Yep, you heard me. Be quiet. The scriptures tell us to "Be still and know that I AM GOD." He tells us over and over again to meditate on His Word day and night. He tells us to hide His Word in our hearts. Can you do that over the blare of the tv, the computer, the cell phone, the radio, the cd, the __________?

We can't. So, with all of this cacophony around us, we follow in paths that lead us over the side. The constant noise pollution clouds the vision of our path. The inability to be still and meditate allows us to lose our way. Of course, all of our friends and the friends of our children are also lost, so like this big group of dumb sheep, we are being herded farther and farther from truth, from our Father, from fulfilling all that He has planned for us in advance to do.

I will stop there. For now. But I will be back. In the meantime, ask yourself: Who are you following?

Take care,

Elizabeth