[Image: Ducks In A Row, 2013, JA Van Devender]
Location: Gun Powder Falls River, vicinity of Bel Air, MD
Proverbs 19:21 (NKJV)
21 There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
I have no clue where the saying "Get your ducks in a row" originates. I could probably find its history on the internet were I so inclined to look it up but I'm too lazy at the moment. It's been around as long as I remember and it is always associated with a prior negative condition. It is said when the judgment has been made that a person does not have their said ducks in a row at the moment. It is an implied criticism with moral over-tones. It communicates that a person is not what they should be, at least in some area... they are deficient not only in execution of some task or project, but they are morally culpable if it is not corrected.
There is that in us which not only appreciates order and executive ability ( getting things done, making it happen, bringing results ) but also intuitively assigns moral worth to such characteristics. We may not particularly like a certain individual, but if he is known as a man with "his ducks in a row", he is respected and sought out. Many a man(or woman), who is otherwise known for being a "jerk", has achieved respect and power even if that person is not loved. Someone might say "Joe is a good man but a bit hard to get along with." Joe has his ducks in a row and rates moral approval even though he is lacking in personal social attractiveness.
I think this tells us something about the way we are put together. As human beings we value such things as order and executive ability. This is not a survival trait, per se, though it easily fits in the category of things which facilitate specie success. But we value these things in every sphere of human endeavor, not just putting food on the table. In a world of specialists, we value efficiency of thought and action and we deplore clumsiness and wasted motion, whether in our yardwork or our recreational sports. We can't seem to get away from it.
Here is an aspect, I think, of the image of God we bear that we may not appreciate as much as we should. This drive in us, no matter whether neglected, suppressed by slothfulness, or unduly emphasized, yet reminds us that the perfection of God includes His absolute efficiency of means and execution in achieving His desired purposes. In contrast to us, who have many plans and whose efficiency and executive abilities are sorely lacking in just about everything, God's "counsel", His purposes, His wisdom, always stands.
Alexander Pope wrote about this in the first section of his supremely worthwhile poem, "An Essay on Man." In classic form, he stated:
The context of this quote, way too long to reproduce here, is that man lives in a world whose ultimate order is incomprehensible to him. The order we see in material things, the physical "design" of the universe, etc. cannot account for the messy and chaotic life that is lived in that universe. Man cannot stand before the horror of bloody teeth and fangs and accept that his life is only to provide meat for a saber-toothed tiger. The whirling chaos of hurricanes and earthquakes are hard to register as positive "goods." But, Pope reminds us, above this apparent discord is an orderly God whose counsels stand and whose purpose is unrelentingly achieved.... "all nature is but art, unknown to thee.... (but) one truth is clear, whatever is, is right."
In other words, God has His ducks all in a row.
Therefore, order and executive ability are morally commendable and their absence or suppression is morally culpable. Man, bearing God's image, should pursue order and understand his life as being directed toward action not passivity. We should have our ducks in a row, to the maximum extent such can be managed. In this we require grace as in all else. We must avoid pride in all its manifest particularity but we must also resist the all too easy temptation of sinful self-depreciation. The tendency to "give up and let God do it" is just another form of idolatry if it strips us of all motive and ambition to further the plans of God with our own contribution.
At the end of the day it will be God who works in us and through us to accomplish His good will, but in the accomplishing, it is our work also and the motives and inclinations of our hearts, the expressed priority we place on His Kingdom goals, will constitute our witness.
God has His ducks in a row... so should we.
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