A FOLLOWER OR A LEADER?

"But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." (Matthew 5:37) (New King James Version)

Chris, a middle-aged woman at the old First Assembly of God of Framingham, used to sometimes become very emotional and say, "I'm in a place I never thought I would be".

Well, spiritually, family-wise, geographically, emotionally, financially, mentally, and vocationally, so am I! If someone would have told me I would wear a somewhat simplistic and unflattering uniform and work as an Operator at a telephone answering service, I would have found that difficult to believe. And, if they told me I'd be at a "big box" store handing out flyers to people as they were walking into the store, I'd have said that would never happen. I WILL say, these experiences have been very valuable learning experiences for me. I have been told by some folks that if I ever do serve as a Pastor or as an Associate Pastor again, I will be much more empathetic and will relate much better to my congregation. I think that's very true.

I have learned a LOT from my recent School of Hard Knocks. Today, I'm going to share something about what I have learned from the second job I mentioned above. This is something that frankly depresses me, but it's something that ought to cause ALL of us to do some real SOUL SEARCHING.

In times of serious discussion and thought we struggle with questions such as,

"How could intelligent and basically nice German people of seventy years ago have led Jewish victims into the gas chambers without a twinge of hesitation or guilt?"

or,

"How could white Americans have called African-Americans 'niggers' and 'coons' and said they 'should all be shipped back to Africa' or were 'good for nothing'?"

"How could they have thrown bricks at the school busses full of black kids that were pulling up in front of what had been all white schools?"

Sadly, most people are followers.

In two years of handing out flyers to people entering the "big box" store, I have observed that one Alpha male or Alpha female with a bunch of shoppers who happen to be filing in behind him or her will set the tone.

IF one person happily takes the flyer, and says something like, "Thank you, sir!"
THEN the next few people immediately behind that person will do EXACTLY THE SAME THING! They will smile, take a flyer, and say, "Thank you, sir!"

IF the first one says, "Hey, appreciate it!" THEN the next few in immediate proximity will take the flyers and say, "Hey, appreciate it!"

However;

IF the first person among such a group if shoppers gives me a look of disdain, and says, "Nope, DON'T want it!"
THEN the next few will all give me a disgusted look and say, "Nope, DON'T want it!"

IF that first person says something more harsh like, "You're not gonna fool ME!"
YES, you guessed it, the next few will all refuse a flyer and say, "You're not gonna fool ME!".

What's interesting is that SOMETIMES the last person will sheepishly come back after just having passed me and ask,

"Now WHAT was that for?"

"Optical," I will add, "There's a big optical sale this month".

"Oh!" the person will then exclaim, "I NEED new glasses, I'll take it."

Am I exaggerating when I say the behavior I am describing in this piece depresses me? No, I'm not. My father used to lament that, "People are like SHEEP!"

Dad refused to grow long sideburns (like almost all other men) during the early 1970s. When I asked him why he would not grow his sideburns long, he replied, "I'm not one of the sheep."

Now, to some extent, nobody REALLY is a non-conformist. We all conform to something.

But I hope this piece causes you to think a minute.

WHY are you a Republican, or a Democrat, or a Libertarian, or an Independent, or totally disinterested in politics?

WHY are you an agnostic, or an atheist, or a Catholic, or a Mormon, or a Reform Jew?

WHY do you love Japanese cars or hate Japanese cars?

WHY are you pro-choice or why are you pro-life?

If a crowd is reacting a certain way, do you go with the flow, or do you buck the trend?

This is not as simple a matter as you might think. As an Assemblies of God minister, I wonder why some people blindly accept the Bible without any critical thought while others would not embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior if He stood right in front of them and raised 22 people from the dead.

What I've written here is what I'd love to ask EVERY one of those "followers" walking into the big box store as they take or refuse the flyer I'm trying to hand out.