FOLLOW THE LEADER
A True Story

Matthew 15:14 ‘And f a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit’

In Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia, a cross-country race was held. The race was to cover a seven-mile course. Two hours after the race had begun, ample time for the runners to cover the course, none of the runners had returned. The officials, fearing that something might have happened, set out in automobiles to find the runners.

The officials found all of the runners six miles away, and sprinting in the wrong direction. Many of the runners had already covered distances of ten miles. A. J. Rogers, the association secretary, said the mix-up apparently occurred when the lead runner took a wrong turn at the fifth check point and the rest followed him!

Sometimes this happens. We play follow the leader without knowing where the leader is going. We do things simply because someone else does them. We make our decisions because someone else has made the same decision before us. And while this is not always bad, it most certainly isn’t always good.

All of us should be aware of where it is that we are going. One of the greatest mistakes of so many in our society is that they are running as fast as they can, following the man in front of them, striving desperately to catch up, and not knowing where the fellow they are following is headed.

Occasionally someone will come along who will consider where it is that he wants to go. He stops long enough to study where following the man in front will lead. These people make up their own minds about which way the race should be going.

The Galilean was a Fellow like this. There was a full fledged race going when He came upon the scene. All the runners were following the leaders. They were pushing with all they had to keep up, to be abreast, racing with the crowd. The leaders had always run their path, and they never questioned its authenticity. They simply took for granted that the runner in front was going the right way.

Then He came into the race. He saw where those who were supposed to be leading the race were headed, and He knew that that was not the path that the Judge had set for the race. So He stopped, took note of the roads, and headed off in another direction. Since he was the Leader in this new direction, the leaders that were going in the other direction became very angry that He should do such a thing. Why didn’t He follow them like all the other runners? Of course, the only thing to do was to belittle Him, and eventually get rid of Him. He could prove dangerous to the course they were leading!

Somehow, this same idea of following the leader that prevailed back then is still around today. If the first car passes an injured man on the highway, all the others are supposed to do the same. If one man makes a joke at Christian values, all other men who follow do the same. If one man shuns another man of different color, then we all must shun him. It’s a game we play. We call it follow the leader.

I believe I would rather know where I’m going than to be in a hurry to follow the man in front of me.