Don't Be a Lone Guinea Hen

In the past two weeks, along with the South Beach diet, I have incorporated walking 2 miles a day to enhance my metabolism. So, anyway, we have three dogs and I decided I would take one dog a day with me to keep me company and to give them some exercise. I cannot control all three together because they would go crazy and run who knows where. We live out in the country and there are several farms that I pass in my daily walk. Today was Molly's day to walk with me. She is our 6 yr. old yellow lab and she is my husband's duck hunting companion. She loves to retrieve and chase anything that moves. So, we're walking along and come up to one of the farms and there are about 10 guinea hens in the front yard. Guess what Molly does? She immediately chases after them. Well, I guess they can't fly because all they do is run in a big group as fast as they can away from her. I called her off and thankfully she is very obedient and she came back to my side. But I noticed as she was coming back there was one lone guinea hen that did not run away with the group and Molly could've picked it up in an instant. In fact, as she was running back to me, she began to chase the lone one, since he would've been easy prey, but I got her attention and she stopped her pursuit. I was reminded of a very real truth during that moment. We, as Christians, can so easily fall prey to being loners. For whatever the reason; sometimes we just want to be by ourselves, we're stressed out, we're tired of the way other Christians are treating us, someone has hurt us, etc...; the list is endless. But we have to be so careful not to ever become a loner. There are so many exhortations in scripture that warn us not to ever try to stand by ourselves. Heb. 10:25 talks about staying in fellowship with other Christians because it builds us up as individuals. There are other passages: one in the book of Ecclesiastes that says a three stranded chord is not easily broken. Proverbs says that in a multitude of counselors there is safety. The point being, we need each other. You've seen those animal shows where they film a herd of deer or zebras or whatever. And there may be one weaker one or one straggler off by himself. He's the one that is going to be the lion's lunch. First Peter 5 speaks of our "adversary - the devil" prowling about, looking for someone to devour.

So, my response? Well, it's to stay in fellowship with other Christians, get encouragement and counsel from wise people and be there for the ones who may be going through something and need me to help hold them up. Don't be the lone guinea hen.