Wednesday

Duck Calls

A hunter sneaked up on a duck and was about to fire when the duck yelled, "Stop. If you don't shoot, I'll give you a hot stock tip!" The hunter lowered his rifle: "Okay, what's the stock?" "A company on the NASDAQ called 'Sounds Like A Duck.' It makes duck calls, and it went up ten points last week alone!" says the duck.

The hunter went straight home and bought 1000 shares. After all, he reasoned, who'd know a good duck call better than a duck? Unfortunately, the company went broke the very next week, and a very unhappy hunter went back to the pond to find the duck. "I lost $20,000 because of your lousy tip!" he snarled.

"Big deal," replied the duck. "You lost a few thousand. We lost our early warning system!"

Too often, we lose ours too. God talks to us constantly, but most of the time all we hear are bits and pieces: The reception is really poor inside our heads! For example, take the words of Jesus. He says to us, 'I am your very own, personal shepherd. I know everything there is to know about you, the good and the bad. And I still love you - even more than you love yourself. You've got your share of troubles and hurts, and they can seem mighty overwhelming at times. But I promise you, if you keep your eyes on me and trust me, I can bring you through anything. I can even turn bad into good, if you trust me, and work with me, and give me some time.'

That's what the Lord is saying to each one of us over and over. But how much of it are we actually hearing? Judging from the lack of peace in our hearts and the extent of our discontents, not much. We can change that. The remedy is elegantly simple: Fix your eyes on the Lord and don't ever look away. Look into His heart and see what He's really about. See the happy life He wants for us.

Trust that; it's true. Then, look at the world through His eyes.

You'll find that it looks very different, much better than we ever imagined!