As Canadian geese honked overhead, I plodded along through my daily predawn walk. There was still crispness in the late winter air, yet the temperatures had modified over the last several days melting snow piles and allowing patches of grass to materialize over night. I looked up and admit a smile formed on my face when I realized that the v-shaped flock was headed in a generally northern direction. The leading goose flapped away as the rest followed as an obedient avian flock on a mission. “Can spring be far away?” I mused. I could at least be hopeful.
The sighting of the flock of geese reminded me of the 1996 movie release entitled Fly Away Home. This movie was loosely based upon a true-life experience of a Canadian, Bill Lishman. He theorized that if he could get a flock of geese to become “imprinted” (the process by which birds will approach and follow an object to which they are exposed soon after hatching – from Scienceray.com) he could get them to follow an ultra light aircraft. In 1993 he successfully went through this “imprinting” process with some newly hatched goslings and later that fall led a flock of 16 Canadian geese from Ontario, Canada, to Northern Virginia. He had convinced these birds that he and the ultra light were leaders worth following. Fortunately he was a leader that had their best interests at heart.
Each fall there are groups of people who also try to lead Canadian geese. They do not use an ultra light aircraft; they use decoys cleverly set in fields and waterways along the geese’s migration routes. They are called goose hunters. Through skill and trickery these hunters try to get the geese to follow their lead and land where decoys are strategically located. Geese that follow the hunters “leadership” often end up a tasty meal on a hunter’s kitchen table. These leaders have their own best interests in mind, not the geese’s.
You have to be careful when it comes to following a leader. Following is important. So is knowing who and what you follow. If you follow the wrong person or thing – no matter how sincere and how much effort you invest – you can be in trouble. Following the right leader is as important as the activity itself! Who wants to have their goose cooked by a dangerous leader!
In our lives there are many “leaders” that vie for our followership. They may arise from among our peers, popular cultural personalities, religious instructors, educational institutions, print and electronic media, friends, and a host of other sources. The point is they are attempting to influence us to head in a particular direction and toward a specific outcome. The challenge is to determine if the leader is taking us where we really should be going and thus worthy of our followership.
Throughout the Bible there is ample evidence that leaders need to be scrutinized and not blindly followed because of their charming personalities, convincing propositions, and pleasing promises. One biblical warning states it this way, “There were false prophets [looking back at history]… even as there will be false teachers among you [looking ahead in history] who will secretly bring in destructive heresies… and bring on themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). Here it seems clear if you follow the wrong leader you might find yourself destroyed along with them. That is why it is essential to inspect a leader’s leading by measuring them against the absolutes of Scripture. The people in Berea did this in Acts 17:11 as they listened to the leaders of the early church, Paul and Silas. Dr. Luke reports they listened to their leading, but they also “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
One needs to be careful about who and what they follow or they could find their goose is cooked! I just heard another flock of geese outside my window. I hope their leader is taking them north. I’m anxious for spring!
