A young woman got lost while trying to drive through a snow storm. She became very frightened as visibility became less and less. Then she remembered her father's advice: "If you ever get stuck in a snow storm, wait for a snow plow and follow it."
It wasn't long before a snow plow came along, and she began to follow it. Almost an hour passed, but wherever the plow went she obediently followed. Finally the driver of the snow plow got out and asked her what she was doing. She explained the whole thing to him, carefully relating her father's advice.
The driver nodded understandingly and said, "Well, now that I'm done with the Wal-mart parking lot, you can follow me over to K-Mart."
We may easily criticize this young lady, but some of us do no better when it comes to following others, especially when it relates to religion. We follow religious leaders just about as blindly as she followed the snow plow. We take the word of men as the determinate of our religious beliefs and practices without checking it out from the word of God. Jesus said, "If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." - (Mt. 15:14).
It's alright to follow others as long as they are following Christ, but we need to be sure that's what they're doing before walking in their steps. Even Paul the apostle recognized this and said, "Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ." - (1 Cor. 11:1).
Blindly following a snow plow will probably result in minor consequences. But blindly following religious teachers will produce much severer results than this. Before you believe what they say, check them out by listening to God.
Lonnie Ritchie