The waiter left the lunch menus…
Who would order first?
There was a protocol…
There were rules to follow…
The first person picked whatever they wanted.
Everybody else had to follow a tricky path…
If the first person orders a salad, everyone must order salads…everyone must imitate that person’s wise choice.
If they order a burger, it’s burger day!
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
-Charles Caleb Colton
But you mustn’t imitate them exactly by ordering the the very same burger or salad.
If you do that, you move from being a sincere flatterer to being a mindless fool with no thoughts of your own.
The first person ordered.
Today was salad day…
Uh oh. There were only four lunch salads on the menu, and five people at the table.
How would the fifth person escape the embarrassment of placing a duplicate order?
Would he be the fifth person?
What would he do?
The waiter started taking orders with the person seated next to him and moved around the table the wrong way. He would be the fifth person to order from a four salad menu
Finally the waiter came to him.
What would he like?
“I’ll take the chopped salad,” he said. Then pausing, looking thoughtful, he said, “But make it a Caesar chopped salad, by adding anchovies”… (A daring choice!) “And change the dressing to the Caesar dressing, but be sure to serve it separately so I can mix it myself.”
Well done! Enough imitation to fit in with the crowd. Enough difference to display independence.
That story happened long ago and if you haven’t guessed, I was the fifth person at the table. (I hate anchovies!)
Remembering that day makes me wonder…
Why are we all so eager to fit in with the people around us…
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
-Eric Hoffer
Why do we forget that God invites us to imitate Him…
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. Ephesians 5:1
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did 1 John 2:6
And finally, Whether we are really wiling to totally “imitate God.. to totally give our lives to Christ…
…or whether like the fifth person ordering a salad, we hold back just enough of ourselves to prove our independence and hold God at arm’s length?
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (emphasis added)
