In one of his more thought-provoking poems, C.S. Lewis writes:
“Hard light bathed them-a whole nation of eyeless men,
Dark bipeds not aware how they were maimed. A long
Process, clearly, a slow curse,
Drained through centuries, left them thus.”
(C.S. Lewis, “The Country of the Blind,” Poems,
edited by Walter Hooper, Harvest/HBJ Book,1964, p. 33)
In a sense, the natural man is “maimed” and largely “not aware” he is sightless. Pop culture feeds on this blindness. With a herd mentality, the adversary leads “men (away) carefully down to hell” (2 Ne. 28:21). The sightless herd convinces itself that since everybody’s doing it, whatever “it” is, the group vision of acceptable behavior is justified. As a result, the individual becomes part of the blind-guide collective. When that happens, men do things with the group they would never consider in the reflective eye of solitude. In my experience no one ever lowers a high standard in solitude; there is typically a social element to misbehavior. Ask any gang member.
The group pull is powerful. I saw a vivid example of this at our recent blood drive. With over a hundred donors, our cultural hall was brimming with people willing to give life-saving blood. As those who had finished giving blood sat next to those waiting to donate, an interesting thing took place. A young woman got woozy and passed out. Caring staff caught her before she banged her head on the floor. Moments later, from several chairs away came the unmistakable thud of a man crashing to the floor. He had been waiting to donate, but when he saw the young woman go down, he too went gray and limp. While both fainters were being carefully attended to, one of the nurses asked me to separate those who were still upright from those who had fallen. When I questioned her request, the nurse explained, “When one goes, they all go!”
Group behavior, for good or ill, has a certain unmistakable momentum. Once in motion, the momentum accelerates. This is true in the stock market, in sports, in missionary efforts and blood drives as well. The key to our direction is defined by who and what we follow: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21). No one would knowingly follow an incompetent surgeon to the operating table, or an unskilled mountain guide to a rocky summit. The quality of our leaders matters. In the gospel of Jesus Christ there is no misdirection; no harmful, wandering path or incompetent guides.
Our vision is profoundly affected by whom we follow. When we follow the natural-man herd, we wander, not recognizing our blindness until the path narrows precariously toward the dangerous cliff. An eye-opening reality check is no blessing if we are already tumbling over the edge. When we follow Jesus, our limited vision is transformed. We literally “see him as he is” (Moro. 7:48), and with startling new eyes we also see ourselves as we are: a precious son or daughter of God.
Jesus said, “For judgment, I am come into this world, that they which see not might see” (John 9:39). This is the reason that coming unto Christ requires us to trust the vision of our ultimate Guide. Faith, by definition, is a walk in the dark, but it is a hand in hand walk with Jesus into the light at the other end of our journey.
As a practical matter, how do we rescue a wayward youth or a lost sheep from the blindness of the wandering herd? The first step is to follow the advice I received at the blood drive: separate yourself before you pass out. The Lord echoes this counsel: “Flee out of the midst of Babylon…” (Jer. 51:6). Your child’s associations matter. Your social circles matter. This does not mean we should become cliquish and closed off from those who do not hold our high standards, but in guiding others by our example we cannot expect to lead without first securing the 20/20 vision of Jesus-our Standard-Bearer. Discipleship is not an eyeless destination, but a straight and narrow path from “darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
