Where Gulliver Went Astray – March 26, 2000
One of the world’s best-known fictional characters is Lemuel Gulliver, whose travels were immortalized by Jonathan Swift. Gulliver, a seafaring doctor, first finds himself among a race of people only six inches high, then among giants who can tuck him in a pocket, and finally in a land ruled by wise talking horses. Gulliver is an energetic and clever traveler, but he makes one very serious mistake with each group he encounters: he lets their opinion of him become his own opinion of himself. Among the little people, he soon acts as though he too is but six inches tall; and after living with the disdainful horses, he comes to believe that he and all human beings are worthless.
Gulliver’s name is intended to remind us of the word “gullible,” which means “easily deceived or cheated.” Gulliver teaches us a crucial lesson: we are badly cheated, indeed we cheat ourselves, if we let others decide who we are and what we’re worth. As we travel through life, we’ll sometimes find ourselves among people who make us feel small. Perhaps we’re older, poorer, or less educated than those around us. Sometimes we may be treated as though we were another species altogether—a goat among the sheep, a duckling among swans—because we talk or dress differently, follow a stricter moral code, worship according to a lesser-known tradition.
As travelers through this world, we each need a compass to tell us where we are, to confirm that we’re on the right course. When we navigate by the heavens, by faith in our relationship with our eternal Creator, we know who we are and where we’re going. The Psalmistmarveled at this divine assurance, saying, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visiteth him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”1
If questions and self-doubts arise, we can take counsel from the spirit within us and the God above us, whose children we are.
Program #3684
1. Psalm 8:4-5.