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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A Monster or a Turtle?

A group from our church was recently in Scotland and mentioned to me that they drove out to the famous Loch Ness. Most of us are only familiar with this body of water in the Highlands area of Scotland due to the world famous folklore of what is called the Loch Ness Monster. The famous pictures and videos that most all of us have seen showing a prehistoric looking creature emerging from the fog covered waters and disappearing into its murky depths have captured thousands of imaginations.

As I was reminded of the Loch Ness Monster story it reminded me of another story from my youth. I grew up in the recently made famous, Conway, Arkansas, now famous for the new American Idol winner, Kris Allen. When I was a youth this now bustling town was pretty slow paced and lacked in the excitement category, unless you count eating at the Dandy Dog or playing putt putt at Frank’s Drive-In “exciting.” I recall a couple of people that I know who were fishing on Lake Conway, which is very similar to Loch Ness in that there is water in both locations. As the men were fishing one of them caught a very large snapping turtle and due to the lack of better things to do in those days their imagination got the best of them and an idea was hatched. I am not going to say who these men were to protect the guilty and I hesitate to say they were my relatives. But here goes -that same morning they had a calf to die on the farm and had put its body in the back of their truck to dispose of the carcass after they finished fishing. One said to the other, “I am going to skin the hide off that calf and take some of this fishing line and sow it on this big snapping turtle.” Before I go any further let me say that no turtles were harmed in this little scheme, just one was highly irritated from it. So the men meticulously sowed the calf hide on the turtle and released him back into the water.

The turtle went back to doing what turtles do. He crawled up on half sunken logs and sunned himself. He swam by other fishermen in their boats. He popped his head up occasionally to breath and to see his surroundings from the murky waters of Lake Conway. With just a little imagination you can picture what this poor creature must have looked like to unsuspecting fishermen. These folks began to see this strange creature crawling up on logs and witnessing this strange image swimming past their boats. It appeared to be turtle like but with a long tail. It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen and it quite frankly began to scare and trouble many of the local fishermen. As the fishermen would come back to the local watering holes and bait shops there began to be quite a story surrounding what was now called “The Lake Conway Monster.” Some had seen it but at a distance, others had heard about it and reported it to yet others with warning of the strange creature right out of the book of Revelation. It had hair like a woman, a long stinger like a scorpion and swam like a fish. It quite possibly could turn over a medium boat and eat a small child.
Now truly it was only a snapping turtle with a calf’s hide sown on him; a hide that would quickly rot off the turtle and life would be back to normal for the turtle but not before human imagination went running wild. I suppose there can be a lesson or two learned from this:

What you think you see is not always what you see. Things are not always what they appear to be. It is easy to see some thing, some person or to see some event and to have preexisting fears in your own life run wild with imagination.

To say a thing is a thing does not make a thing a thing. I know that is a very deep statement but stay with me. In my story you can say that you saw The Lake Conway Monster and you can tell others that you saw it. But it still would be just a snapping turtle with a calf’s hide sown on it. No matter how many times you say it, it will always and only be a turtle.

Be careful what you tell for fact because the next person who tells it will make it fiction. What was only a large snapping turtle could be a monster by the second helping of gossip. Things told twice are seldom things told accurate.

And finally there are truly two sides to every story. What was a horrible troubling sight in the eyes of several people was simply a funny joke to others. The Spiritual principle here is simple. When Satan fills us with fears, wicked imaginations, and hearsay gossip, he is the one that is laughing. Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear and certainly be careful little tongues what you say. Satan would love to divide friendships, families, ministries and churches over what appears to be monsters, but are truly only turtles being turtles. Give it some thought.