Ever been to see gorillas at a zoo? They are big and bad and have extremely poor social manners. If you have ever been to a gorilla enclosure at a zoo you recognize the impressive nature of these beasts. The largest of the primates, gorillas are massive apes.
You probably know the little joke:
Sam; “What does a 500 pound gorilla do?”
Jim: “I don’t know, what does a 500 pound gorilla do?”
Sam: “Anything he wants!”
That just doesn’t work if you substitute “marmoset” for “gorilla.”
Gorillas become King Kong; chimpanzees become Cheetah. Tarzan is king of the apes, not king of the merkats.
At the Rotterdam Zoo the gorilla enclosure has an interesting feature. When people enter the area to see the apes, each person receives a unique pair of glasses. On the front of the glasses eyes appear, all pointing to the side. This way you can peer directly at the apes, but they think you are looking away. Why?
A gorilla perceives a stare as a threatening gesture. My friend Dan Breeding of dantheanimalman.com, a Christian and an animal expert, has baboons. The big male named Calvin hates me. When I go to see Dan, I never stare directly at Calvin, because he goes into a tizzy, rapidly raising and lowering his eyebrows back at me.
When Alvin stares at Calvin, Calvin wants to fight. I do not want to fight a baboon. I have held venomous snakes, ridden elephants, and once went into an enclosure with grown tigers (I signed a waiver). But I do not want to mess with an angry baboon. I certainly would never want to be alone with an angry gorilla.
Apes such as gorillas and large monkeys like baboons do not appreciate stares. Were they capable of playing poker they would be awful. But the truth is, we do not like stares either.
How man times have you dreamed something, maybe something significant, maybe something great for God, but in your mind’s eye began to feel the stares—the stares of the naysayers, the gaze of the conformists, the glare of the institutional watchdog? Certainly we need accountability, and we all know people who fire off like loose canons, doing more harm than good.
I am not talking about those people. I am talking about you. I am asking you to think about those times you want to do something that matters, something risky, something sacrificial, not to call attention to your own supposed spirituality, but because of a deep conviction that you only have one shot at this life and you must make the most of it for things that matter, things much bigger than you.
Keep your mentors close. Listen carefully to them. But stop paying attention to the stares.
We have a heavy pull in our culture to fit in, to conform, to be like everyone else. Just go to the mall and watch people. See young people obviously obsessed about how the outfit they are wearing so they would be sure to stand out, and then see how they look remarkably like the other teens trying to stand out too—you will see the Goth look, the preps, etc. Not all are like this, but too many live in a daily prison of bars made of the imagined stares of others.
But you are not a gorilla. You do not need to imagine people in glasses never looking at you. God has made you uniquely, and imprinted in you the Image of God.
Think about this: what is the one thing you would do for God and for good, not for yourself, not for fame or personal glory, but for the One you worship, the one thing you would do if you could do so apart from the stares of those who tell you to be cautious, to be safe, to conform?
I met a young man at a camp recently. He is in high school. He started an evangelistic effort in his community that seemed to be having success. But he had a fear.
“What if I fail?” He asked me.
“What if you do?” I replied. “The world will not end. You will not be cast away from God. The people who matter in your life will not reject you.” In other words, ignore the stares.
As a young man I went to a small university to teach. I had well known Christian leaders, more than one, tell me that was a mistake, that no one knew of that school, that I had a lot of potential, and I should put myself in a place where many could see me.
The stares surrounded me. But I had a dream of teaching young men and women about things that matter, about the gospel and the mission. I wanted to fight against the opportunism that waged war in my soul and instead give myself to serving Jesus. So I went. But I had to ignore some stares.
You will always have people staring at you. The question is whether or not you will be a gorilla and respond with anger or frustration, or worse, with conformity. Or, will you be a follower of Jesus who looks beyond the stares into His face, living as Paul did, to please Him (II Cor. 5:9).
Ignore the stares. Reach for the stars. Do something that matters.
