”It is difficult to soar with the eagles when you work with a bunch of turkeys.” This sign was recently seen on a desk in a large office.

It is true that we are affected by those around us. Even if we regard our fellow workers as a bunch of turkeys, it should not inhibit our ability to soar above them. It may be difficult but it is not impossible. While we are in the world, we are not to be a part of it.

We cannot fly in formation with those of the world for they are all going in the wrong direction. If we really are part of their flock, then we are in trouble. Another old saying of the world is ”birds of a feather flock together.” So while we may be working with a bunch of turkeys, we really do need to take off and soar above them as the eagles do.

Isaiah speaks of a day when ”we shall mount up with wings as eagles.” If we hope to do that in the future, we are required now to leave the other kinds of birds to their gobbling and strutting. We need to get on with our service to our Lord by soaring above the turkey talk of the flock at work or school.

We may not like to think of some of our worldly associates as spiritual turkeys but we need to read carefully what Paul says. ”I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.” It is a sad commentary on the human race that these sins are so common that we would have to leave the world in order to have no association with such people. If this was true in Paul’s day, it is also true today.

So what are we to do? We want to soar with the eagles and we are surrounded by turkeys. Well, by being an eagle, we can soar above them and not partake of their evil deeds.

Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father on our behalf saying, ”I have given them thy word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I request not that thou wouldst take them out of the world but that thou wouldst keep them out of the evil: of the world they are not, even as I am not of the world.”

So, we should not be discouraged that we have to work or go to school with a bunch of turkeys. The world is full of them but it is important that we continue to soar above them in the way we talk and act. Turkeys gobble and make a lot of noise but not much sense. That is a good parallel to empty and vain conversation. How often do we sound like turkeys?

It may be hard to soar with the eagles but its is not impossible, for if God is for us, who can be against us? With Paul we can say, ”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

When our Lord comes, we had better not be strutting around the turkey pen with all the rest of the turkeys, sounding and acting like them. Jesus said, ”If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”

Let us make sure that we are as different from the world as eagles are from turkeys. Again the Master said, ”I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world.”