Chasing Elephants
By Eugene Lincoln

The story is told of a police officer watching a man on the town square run this way and that, waving his arms wildly and shouting, "Shoo! Vamoose! Scat! Scram!"

Curiousity eventually conquered the officer's reluctance to interfere with the man's strange behavior. "What in the world are you doing?"

"Chasing elephants, " the man replied, scarcely taking time to answer.

"There is not an elephant within a hundred miles of here," the officer replied.

The man paused, wiped the perspiration from his face, and said, "That's wonderful. I've done a good job haven't I?"

Many of us have also spent time chasing elephants that aren't there. A few people are searching for Jesuits within the membership, and particularly among the leadership, of our church.

Intrigued by one who claimed to know the names of several Jesuit leaders who had become part of our fellowhship, I wrote asking him to share this vital bit of information. In reply, I received a letter reiterating the claim--but no names. The elephants did make an apperance.

In the fall 1993 issue of Sunday, published by the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States, editor Jack Lowndes wrote, "Recently, I received a letter . . . asking if the Lord's Day Alliance still advocated the death penalty for those who observe Saturday as the Sabbath." He continued, "Of course, that position has never been taken by the Alliance." Was somebody chasing a nonexistent elephant?

Elusive

For many years I chased an elusive elephant. I tried ridding sin from my life--all by myself. I wanted to be good enough so I could look my Lord in the face and say, "I've done it; I've made myself righteous in Your eyes." But I couldn't.

Then I discovered a wonderful truth: my Maker doesn't ask me to make myself good. My task is to say: "I have nothing to offer You, but I invite You to live within me and guide my acts, words, and very thoughts. I put my whole self under Your control."

What a difference that has made for me! Gone is the frustration of failure. Of course, I still fail many times when I try to rush ahead of the Lord. But even more often I find that when I fall flat on my face because I have not waited, God comes back to help me stand again. God seems to understand my weaknesses.

Even Satan is not the elephant with whom I must deal. Jesus won that battle long ago when he died for my sins and was resurrected to live forever. Martin Luther realized this when he wrote: "The Prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure, one little word [Jesus] shall fell him."

The situation is somewhat the same as when my wife and I see the reenactment of a Civil War battle. She is from Georgia and I am from Indiana, and I suspect she prefers the battles in which the Confederates won. But whatever the result of an individual battle, we both know the outcome of the war. That was determined more than l00 years ago.

And I know the result of the battle with Satan. In each battle Jesus won: the temptation, Gethsemane, Calvary, the Resurrection. So even though Satan carries on a guerrilla warfare, I need not fear the outsome with God at my side.

There is a real elephant. And I must battle it daily--hourly. It is self. Like Paul, I acknowledge, "What a wretched man I am!" (Romans 7:24). But like him, I can add, "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:25).

I have learned, through many years of chasing elephants, to choose my elephants carefully.

--Eugene Lincoln is the retired journal editor of a Christian journal. He and his wife live in Hagerstown, Maryland.