Just before Labor Day, I took a few days off work and decided to spend some time trying to brush up a rusty golf swing.
What I saw when I got to the range made me laugh. A family of wild turkeys seemed to have concluded that the safest place in the world isn’t in the woods, but in a “duffers” target line.
They seemed to have no sense of being in harm’s way. A close call for them was nothing more than a moment of confusion.
Looking back I wondered how much like those turkeys I am.
In some ways, since 9-11 of 2001, our world seems less safe than before the Towers fell. Even if we wonder what really happened on that day and why, we’ve learned to live with a heightened sense of danger.
But on the other hand, my guess is that, like the turkeys at the driving range, I spend far too much of my life oblivious to the fact that, the real dangers of life aren’t found in issues of government or national security.
The real dangers, according to the Bible, involve a failure to trust our God in the face of all that we have going for and against us.
It’s easy to forget how misleading good times can be– or how much opportunity for faith, hope, and love there are in the troubles that haunt and hound us. On one hand the Apostle Paul tells us that we are not fighting against “flesh and blood” but against an organized system of spiritual power (Eph 6:12). On the other hand, the Apostle James gives us reason to believe that the Devil himself knows that we are our own worst enemy when we forget who our Provider is, chase blind desire, and fail to humble ourselves in the presence of our God (James 4:1-8).
My guess is that, if I could see what is really going on, I’d often look and sound like a turkey looking for lunch… in the middle of a driving range.
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