Monkey See and Monkey Do

This week, Michael writes: There's a saying that says "monkey see and monkey do." (learn by imitating and copying what they see). According to James 1:22-25, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

Marina Chapman was kidnapped from her home in Columbia at the age of four.  She remembers only bits and pieces of her abduction. She remembers a man's arm pulling her into the back of a truck. The next thing she remembered was the strange smell of a chemical on a rag held over her face as she passed out. When she woke up two days later, she realized that she was in the heart of the jungle all alone. For three days and nights she cried and screamed for her mother. On the third day, a troop of monkeys noticed her. Over the next few days the monkeys realized that she was not a danger to them. The monkeys started bringing her fruit and nuts that they had gathered for eating. She began to observe what they were doing and how they foraged for food. The monkeys eventually adopted her into their troop. From the age of four to ten she survived in the heart of the Columbia jungle by one strategy: Monkey see and monkey do.

After several years, she saw something shiny on the ground hidden in the brush.  She studied it from a distance and finally poked at it. When she looked closely she discovered that the shiny object had two eyes. Then she realized that it blinked when she blinked. She remembered a similar object from her childhood and that what she had found was a mirror. Three things came into focus: Who she really was, who she was not, and who she had become. She had caught a glimpse of the girl she really was and that she was different from the monkeys around her. She decided to find who she was meant to be. Some time later, she heard a rustle in the brush and saw that it was a hunting expedition. She followed the men from a safe distance but they discovered her hiding. They captured her and took her into the city. She was so wild that they did not know what to do with her. Eventually she was taken to a Catholic convent. Many years later at the age of sixty-five, Marina Chapman wrote her true story in the book, "The Girl with No Name."

The world teaches us to imitate what we see others do. The rule of the jungle is "monkey see and monkey do." The world indoctrinates us according to its norms and mores. Jesus said, "You are not of this world."  James 1:25 says, "Whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein, he not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, he shall be blessed in his deed."  According to 2 Corinthians 3:18, "For we all beholding as in a glass the glory of the lord are changed into the same image from glory (of the flesh) to glory (of the Lord) even by the spirit of the Lord."  

How do we discover our true identity? God called the prophet Nathan to show David who he really was. David no longer walked in fellowship with God after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then ordered the murder of her husband Uriah.  David had lost track of his true identity. Nathan told David a story about a rich man in his kingdom who owned many flocks of sheep. His neighbor was a poor man whose only possession was a precious little ewe lamb whom he cherished like his own daughter. One day one of the rich man's friends came over for dinner. Instead of taking a sheep from his own flocks, he stole his neighbor's little ewe lamb, butchered her, and served her to his rich guest for dinner. Nathan asked David, "What shall we do about this injustice?"  David said to Nathan, "The man who did this thing must die."  Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man." David realized his sin. Psalm 51 is the record of David's repentance.  David confessed, "Against you only have I sinned. Create in me a new heart O Lord."  A broken and a contrite heart God will not forsake.

The Word of God is the mirror and reflects what the world really produces. The world produces refugees who are starving because the world feeds them junk food. The influencer in the story of the Journey rescues the refugee from the deception of this world. When we look into the mirror of the Word of Truth found in the holy Scriptures of the Bible, it reflects the truth of what God has made us in Christ. For He who was without sin became the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.

According to Philippians, God is our sufficiency. He is our all in all. He completes us and he equips us to will and to do of his good pleasure. He has made us able and sufficient ministers of the New Testament. According to 2 Corinthians 3:2-3: "Ye are our epistle (God's love letter) written in our hearts, known and read of all men:  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”

What is God's plan? We are God's plan. He has called us to be disciples:  disciplined followers of our Lord Jesus Christ to will and to do of His good pleasure ... “Doers of the Word” reflecting our true nature of Christ to bring others to the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ, Michael