Opinion Polls

   As I was reading through the Gospel of Luke this morning, I came to this verse in Chapter 7 that was translated in The Message thusly:

    "Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

   As soon as I saw the words "opinion polls", my mind immediately went to the news that I read on the Internet almost every day, because, in this political season, there is always at least one story lead talking about some opinion poll on the presidential race. There are daily polls and weekly polls, looking for a change in sentiment toward the candidates. The parties have their own polling, which they tout if they are favorable and pooh pooh if they don't show anything good.

   There have been charges that this or that politician waits for the polls to come out, to see what the country is thinking, before he or she decides on a course of action, not just before an election but after they are in office and have to decide issues.

   Of course, I can be that way, too. I can see what my friends think about something before I decide on a course of action. I can go with the majority because my status is raised in their eyes at least. I can still be one of their crowd if I think the same way.

   Making the choice that is "right" is sometimes hard to do. It can be hard to know just what is "right". The majority is not always "right".

   There is only one opinion poll that is correct, God's, and that is the one that I want to hear and abide by.

   There is that poem by Kipling that begins:

   If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you....

   I can trust in myself if my trust is in God and what He says.

   "and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
   (John 8:32)