The Gospel According to Aesop

Some historians believe that many of the well-known fables were written by a slave named Aesop, who lived in Ancient Greece during the 5th century BC. Other historians think they were just made-up stories to teach morals and wisdom to children. Many such as “The Fox and the Grapes”, “The Tortoise and the Hare”, and “The Boy Who Cried ‘Wolf’” have been passed down and are still in children’s literature.

A week or so ago, while helping my 1st-grade granddaughter with homework, I saw one written in simplified form as her assignment. She read “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and it was fun to chat with her about the importance of persistence, perseverance, and the harm that comes from being distracted, slothful, or over-confident.

You remember the story, don’t you? The rabbit, while making fun of the turtle, was challenged to a race. The rabbit had so much confidence in his own ability and so little respect for his adversary that he skipped merrily along the race course, oblivious to any personal shortcomings.

He stopped under a big shade tree, looked back, chuckled, then laughed so hard that he fell down (ROTFLOL*). Lying comfortably on the ground, he decided to take a short nap since he had plenty of time to successfully finish the race.

While he slept, the slow and steady turtle plodded along, right past the sleeping bunny. As he approached the finish line, his friends cheered and welcomed the unlikely victor. The rabbit must have been alerted to the situation by the noise of the crowd, but it was too late. The race was over!

Reading that, I realized that it was a picture of attitudes today. Many of us, like the rabbit, have so much confidence in our “I did it my way” mentality and so little respect for our adversary’s ability to deceive, that we, too, are oblivious to schemes that could prevent our finishing.

Paul said in Acts 20, “If only I may FINISH THE RACE and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.” Later he said to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have FINISHED THE RACE, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness…” (Sign me up for one of those!)

How often do we sleep rather than run the race the Lord Jesus has given us? Life can get exhausting. We are tempted to slow down, stop, stand, sit, and lie down to rest. Soon, ZZZZZZZ's.

This sounds a lot like Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who does not WALK in the counsel of the wicked or STAND in the way of sinners or SIT in the seat of mockers.” Do you see the progression when plodding stops? The obvious next step is to lie down like "dat wabbit."

I understand the temptation. Plodding makes me tired. The alarm goes off; I get up and shower; I drink coffee and eat my Oat Cluster Cheerios and banana; I go to work. Evening comes and I plod off to church, ballgames, kiddie gymnastics/dance, etc. I empty and reload the dishwasher, throw in a load of clothes, do my Sudoku from the newspaper, and go to bed, realizing tomorrow is another day to plod.

Through it all, we seek to hear God's voice. I suspect that He is near, encouraging each of us to “just keep swimming.”(Did you see “Finding Nemo”?)

Like the turtle (and moving at a surprisingly similar speed), I seek to stay in the race--not wanting to finish first, but rather to finish strong. The race is a marathon and certainly takes endurance, perseverance, and persistence.

Steve Green sings:

♫ We're pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.

(In case you have been wondering)
*ROTFLOL = rolling on the floor laughing out loud