Lemmings have been on my mind lately. It seems that I use to hear more about lemmings years ago. I remember my favorite teacher, Mr. T.F. Davies, telling us not to be like lemmings, blindly following a leader to our own peril and death. I could digress here and dwell on lemmings but that's not really where my mind is at this morning, it's on lemming like behavior and Joshua (1:8), another of my favorite teachers.
I've been making my way through the gospels this month and picked up at Mark 8 today. No BIG message here this morning, just a couple of passages (Mark 9:23, 24 and 9:32) that required some application of Joshua 1:8. Because Joshua 1:8 takes time I don't know yet what the Lord will "say to me" about how they apply to my life but they did get me thinking about lemmings. Or rather, the process of meditating on God's Word, got me onto lemmings... Ok, ok, where am I going with this?
The thought that, I could skip all this meditation stuff, I could just use one of the many tools available today (an app, a web site, a broadcast message, etc.) or I could just wait until my pastor preaches on it. And, that's when I thought of lemmings streaming by. Not blindly exactly, but unknowingly following the herd, and the herd somewhere ahead following a "leader". Then, as Mr Davies told us many times, it's over the cliff and drowning in the sea. A great image, one that motivated me for years to not follow the crowd. But the reality of lemming behaviour is an even more important lesson.
It seems that lemmings aren't going willy-nilly over the cliff to their deaths. Researchers now think that lemmings know they're heading into, entering, deep water. The problem is that they are strong swimmers but don't know how long they'll have to swim, how strongly they'll have to swim... It isn't getting into the water that's the problem, it's not being able to individually weigh and evaluate what getting in the water means.
And, finally, I'm back at Joshua 1:8 and why it reminds me of lemmings hurrying past. It's easy and quick to let someone else lead us to an understanding of what God is saying, how it applies to our lives. It takes time and effort to meditate on our "book of the law" so that we can "be careful to do according to all that is written in it." It's only when we find those "what do you mean?" messages and aren't afraid to apply Joshua 1:8 that we avoid being led into more than we have the ability to safely swim through. The disciples could have personally asked Christ to help them understand (Mk 9:32), we can too.
