I must have been 5 or 6 years old the morning my aunt told my cousins & me, “Go pick out a chicken for supper tonight.” Like a well-choreographed dance move she took the chicken in one hand and the hatchet in the other and as she brought the chicken down onto the chopping block, off went the chicken’s head. When she put the chicken down it ran through the yard, blood flying everywhere until it finally stopped…lifeless with no blood left in its body. I stood there thinking how did the chicken run without its head? I have learned that the chickens brain extends down the spinal cord giving the body a limited ability to function, but when the blood runs out, it’s over.

When I think about it, our world today is like that headless chicken running through the yard. Job said it well, “…where then is my hope— who can see any hope for me?” Job 17:15. Then in Proverbs 11:7 we read, “Hopes placed in mortals die with them; all the promise of their power comes to nothing.” BAM! Check out the arguments of who gets elected or who gets the promotion or who gets the award or recognition. These two old passages reveal today’s culture. When “Hope” is absent (the moral head) all that is left is anxiety, panic & fear. From the Proverbs passage we see why the world’s culture is in the state it is…people placing their “hope” in people & creation and not the Eternal Creator.

Jesus put His finger on why people are living like today’s headless chicken in Matthew 22:29. “Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” In Romans 15:4, we find, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have Hope.”

It is impossible to have, “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) without accepting Jesus as your Lord & Savior. It is then the Holy Spirit will provide the Heavenly Fruit of the Spirit. Which do you want…the world’s way or God’s Way, it your choic