Spiritual Turtles

Yesterday when I was out for a morning walk, early in my journey I came across the gal you see in the photo; an Eastern box turtle. She was in a neighbor’s yard and pointed toward the road, about five feet from the asphalt. Apparently, she was either resting for the sprint across the asphalt or perhaps pondering the pros and cons of the path that lay before her.

About a mile later, I came across one of her cousins who had already made the plunge. He was light years ahead of her. Pondering was a thing of the past. He was halfway across the road, catching a breather, perched dead center (sorry for the pun) in the road with front feet on one yellow line and hind quarters covering the other one. A pickup truck inched by, making a slight, and very kind, life-altering course adjustment for the little guy. After the truck passed, I approached the turtle, gently picking him up and placing him at his destination; the other side of the road.

As I continued my walk, I reflected on how we humans are like box turtles. Three similarities came to mind.

First, we’re slow. It often takes us a while to “get it.”

I think about the time recorded in John’s gospel when Jesus is speaking with his disciples after the Last Supper. He had spent the last three years with these guys, doing virtually everything with them. They heard Him teach about the kingdom of God and saw Him heal the sick.

Now He’s just hours away from His trial and execution, and He tells His friends this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you (Jn 14:6-9)?”

Essentially Jesus is saying, “Hey guys, don’t you get it? Don’t you know who I am? You’re slower than a turtle in a forty-yard dash. I’ve been doing a three-year show-and-tell with you but you haven’t connected the dots yet. Where have you guys been all this time?

Been there, done that.

I remember when I finally understood the doctrine of grace. I grew up in church and heard it talked about all my life, but it wasn’t until I was about 36 years old that I “got it.” Somehow it just seemed too good to be true, so I kept trying to perform – to somehow earn my salvation – and beating myself up as I continued the daily practice of falling short of the perfection for which I strove. I finally got it. (see What is Grace).

Secondly, like a box turtle, when things aren’t going our way, or when we sense danger – real or perceived – we “turtle” into our shell and go inward.

Box turtles have a hinged plastron (the bottom part of the shell) that allows them to close their shell tightly. They will use their front legs to pull their head and front legs inward, while their back legs push against the plastron to close the shell. They have a flap of skin called a “bridge” that can extend from their shell to cover the gap between their carapace (upper shell) and plastron. When the turtle pulls its legs and head into its shell, the bridge will retract to cover the opening, just like us.

Perhaps the turtle got some bad advice somewhere along the way when someone said, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” God might have created the turtle this way, but not us. He created us for community. The Bible tells us that “the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him (Gen 2:18)’ … Then the Lord God made a woman (Gen 2:22)” for the man.

God provides others to help us do what we cannot do for ourselves when real or perceived danger lurks. We don’t fix ourselves by going inward. We get fixed by going outward to others whom God has provided, and upwards to Him through Jesus Christ our Savior where “we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most (Heb 4:16).”

Thirdly, we all need help crossing the road.

When a turtle crosses the road he takes his life in his hands, unaware of the danger of his surroundings. He hears the thunder from a distance not knowing that it’s a 4000-pound rolling chunk of metal that seeks to end the bliss of his afternoon stroll. At that point the turtle needs an angel; someone who will whisk him away from his naivety and place him in the safety of the other side of the road. There is no better illustration of this need we have and the way God meets our need than in this poem written by Carolyn Joyce Carty nearly 60 years ago:

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the Lord about it:

“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me.”

The Lord replied:

“My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you.”

So my friend, let us not be spiritual turtles. Let’s be faster; faster to “get it” by realizing that God has already “gotten us,” even when we didn’t deserve it. Let’s not go inward, sealing off those who love us and want to help us – our friends, family, and the Lord Himself – but outward and upward. And finally, let us joyfully recognize that we have been carried this far by the one who will safely deliver us to the other side of the road, never failing us and never abandoning us.

Now, with this in mind, let us all …

Play to win this week in the game that really counts!