Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* Peer Pressure
* Scripture: Jesus said, "Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? Luke 6:39, NKJV

Peer pressure! We tend to think of adolescents when we hear the word, but peer pressure goes far beyond the realm of teenagers. It can be brought to bear on any of us, because a peer is anyone of the same societal group, based on age, grade or status. Unless, of course, you are in Great Briton, where the peerage consists of the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, or baron.
One's peers have a powerful influence over one's behavior. We don't want to be the odd ball, the 'different' one. In group dynamics, there is a weight, or pressure, that functions in determining acts or choices made in common. As part of a crowd, we tend to go along with the crowd. "When in Rome . . . ."
"Birds of a feather" do indeed flock together, research has shown. It is just natural to want to be among others like ourselves. Our 'feathers' may be clothing, choices in music, favorite leisure activities, or beliefs and tenets. A peer group draws a circle, delineating what is 'In' and acceptable, and what is Not a characteristic 'feather' of inclusion. In some societies, the showing of an unacceptable 'feather' can lead to shunning of the offender - exclusion from fellowship.
I suppose a case could be made that the first example of peer pressure presented in the Bible was Adam's acceptance of Eve's fruity snack. The 'Authority' figure that seeks to sway a group's thinking was certainly there, and 'ole Satan is still in there, taking advantage of the 'follow the leader' syndrome.
One of the most disastrous events in the history of Israel hinged on the elements of the generation gap and peer pressure. King Solomon's successor, Rehoboam, first consulted the elders, who enjoined him to be a servant to the people, and speak good words to them. (1 Kings Ch. 12)
Rehoboam rejected their advice, and instead consulted the young men he had grown up with - his peers!
Their promised heavy yoke and harsh kingship led to a split in the nation, starting the northern ten tribes down the long path to idolatry and eventual dispersement among the nations.
We often stand where Adam and Rehoboam stood: We need to make choices - which can either lead us astray, or strengthen our walk on the right path.
Choose well - a peer group of those who can see clearly God's pathway.
By all means, avoid those who are blind to His Way, lest we follow them into the dark ditch of eternity.
January 15, 2006

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* It Might Have Been
* Scripture: Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul.” Mark 8:36, NKJV

Baseball catcher Yogi Berra is reputed to have said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Well, I suppose one could just sit there, in a state of stultification, or turn around and go back. Chances are, though, one fork or the other will be taken. Choices, decisions, alternatives. If this, then - What? What will the answer be?

John Greenleaf Whittier brought two people to such a fork in the road in his poem, “Maud Muller.” Maud was a farm girl, “Of simple beauty and rustic health,”raking hay in the meadow on a summer’s day, when a Judge stopped his horse to rest in the shade of a tree, and asked the maid for a drink of water. While he tarried, they:

“talked of the haying, and wondered whether
The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.”

When he at last rode away, Maud’s thoughts wandered to what it would be like that she the Judge’s bride might be.

“He would dress me up in silks so fine. . . ”

The Judge looked back at Maud and considered her pastoral world - the

“low of cattle and song of birds,
And health and quiet and loving words.
But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,
And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.
So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,
And Maud was left in the field alone.“

The years pass, and their roads diverge:

“He wedded a wife of richest dower,
Who lived for fashion, as he for power . . . .”

“She wedded a man unlearned and poor,
And many children played round her door.”
Often over the years each thought back to that summer day:
“In the shade of the apple-tree again
She saw a rider draw his rein;
And, gazing down with timid grace,
She felt his pleased eyes read her face.”

while he wished to be

“Free as when I rode that day,
Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay.”

Oh! For the fork in the road not taken.
Choices, decisions, alternatives.

“Alas for maiden, alas for Judge,
For rich repiner and household drudge!
God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.”

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: `It might have been!`”

As Jesus observed, many take the fork that promises the “riches” of the the world, only to find that it leads to a soul lost for eternity. Too late, too late, one can then only look back and sigh, “It might have been.”
May 8, 2005

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43, NIV
I often end up with seed left over after planting my garden each year. It is good seed; I simply ran out of row or crop requirements before the package was emptied. Now the conundrum: to save, sow, or throw. I hate to waste anything, so I often save the seed until later, sow it in late summer by throwing it randomly where another crop has been harvested.
Seeds are amazing! They are intended to be survivors. The plant that grows from the seed is not always hardy, but the seed is endowed with life that will endure. At just the right time, known only to God and the seed, the next phase of the life cycle of that plant will resume; first the sprout, then the vine, the bloom, the fruit, and so again to the seed. Thus, as this spring season sprung, I had turnips, onions, garlic and spinach already making their appearance, having survived the winter.
I gave them a chance to live, and live they did! Unlike some people I’ve known, they didn’t ask for a better deal, a nicer location. They just made the most of the opportunity they had, and grew where I put them. Eventually, through extremes of weather or limits of age, plants will lose their lives, but the seeds will survive. God plans for plants to bloom, for without the blossom, there will be no seed.
There is an old adage, “Bloom where you are planted.” I’ve never had a plant complain or demand a better treatment, but I’ve surely had that experience with people. The whiners, the losers - call them what you will - always have reasons why they can’t ‘bloom.’ Given the right situation, Oh, how they could be fruitful! While it is true that one’s situation in life can be stiffling, it is undeniable that others, faced with similar obstacles, manage to succeed. I think back to the Biblical stories of Abraham and Lot. What distinguished these two men was not their circumstances, but their choices. Lot chose the best land, the earthly life, toward Sodom.
Later, when he and his family are promised salvation from the wrath that is to strike Sodom, he pleads for that which does not promise life. Always seeking a better lot in life, Lot never “blooms” where he is planted. Parallel lives; critical choices. Abraham listened to God, bloomed accordingly, and received the promise of ‘seed’ that would live forever. See Genesis chapters 13 and 19.
Let’s consider another two men, similar in circumstance. With a third man, they have been condemned to death. All three are ‘planted’ on a hill, on crosses. Two are indeed criminals, thieves, sinners. One hurls insults at the man in the middle. Defiant even at the end of his life, his focus is not on what he could do for himself, but on what another could, but won’t, do for him.
The other, identical in location and sentence, “blooms!” Perhaps for the first time in his life, he makes the choice that matters. He turns to the Man in the middle, and asks, “Remember me.”
And the Man in the middle, joined in suffering with the other two, finishes the Father’s Work, just as He was sent to do. In so doing, through His death, the fruitful in Him receive the seeds of eternal life.
May 4, 2003