Lesson for Royal Ranger River trip 2004
February 28, 2009 at 9:14pm
Lesson for Royal Ranger River trip 2004
A short while ago a young boy and his mother were out for their daily morning walk. This was a special time that the two of them has set aside so they could spend time together and just talk about anything they wanted to, (no thoughts about the pressures of life that creeps into every relationship, home & family.) it was a gentle time, A time to let the sun warm you skin and the cool morning air refresh their spirits. This particular morning was already getting hot, as the day was promising to be one of those hot southern summer days; the boy asked his mother if it might be all right to take a swim in the pond. They walked out onto the dock and the boy kicked off his shoes and shirt, climbed through the railings and dove into the cooling water. He was a good swimmer so began to swim the length of the small pond.
After a few pleasant moments of enjoying the serene morning peacefulness, through the corner of her eye the boy’s mother caught a movement in the bushes. A chill ran through her body and she instinctively hollered to her son to turn back. She was not the only one watching her son swimming in the pond. An alligator had been watching the boy from the shore, and now had slipped through the reeds and into the water.
The young boy immediately responded to his mother’s panicked call, he knew this was a serious frantic call for him to return to her and he turned and began to swim back to his mother as fast as he could. Closer and closer to the dock where his mother was calling to him to hurry, he swam. When he got to the dock he lifted his arms towards his mother and she bent over the rails and grabbed his arms to pull him to safety. Grabbing him firmly she began pulling her son up out of the water onto the Dock. Just then the gator lunged out of the water and caught the young boy legs in his powerful jaws.
The boy’s mother was no match for this ferocious creature fighting for survival as he and his kind had done for millions of years and he gave a mighty pull on the young boy’s legs to drag him back into the water. The boy heard his mother’s chest smash into the railings of the dock. She looked into her sons terrified eyes, “I’ve got you”, she cried, “hold on!” as she dug her grip in deeper into her son’s arms.
The Gator was no match for his mother’s love and dedication for her son, and what might have been an easy meal for the gator, now evolved into a thrashing struggle. Each time the gator would pull with all his strength the mother would hold on tighter, “I’ll never let you go” she told her son, “he’ll have to take us both”. The struggle continued on for what seemed like an eternity but it was only just a few seconds, when a passing farmer heard the commotion and ran to help the mother and her son. He reached over the rails with his pistol he carried in his truck, and with a single shot, shot the Gator dead.
They pulled the boy to safety and took him to the emergency room and though his legs were terribly torn and disfigured the doctors felt he would make a good recovery. The mother had suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung during the struggle. They shared the hospital room while they recovered.
Some time after the incident, word had gotten out about the story of this struggle between a mother and her son, and the alligator. Pictures in the local news paper began to circulate of the dead gator and a local television news station sent a TV crew and reporter to bring back the story. They politely asked if they could conduct the interview and the young boy happily obliged. The reporter began to ask his many questions about that day; the ferocity of the gator, how scary it must have been; He asked about the pain and the Gators teeth. Just as he was finishing his interview he asked the boy if he minded if the cameraman could “get some footage of his legs.” “Re-living/Remembering the attack, the young boy’s demeanor had changed from happiness to shame and despair, but he reluctantly obliged and slowly he lifted his hospital Johnny and revealed his badly scarred and deformed legs. The damage was far worse than either of them had imagined and after just a few seconds the reporter concluded “Well thank you very much for taking your time to talk to us.” and he instructed the camera man to turn off the camera and begin packing up.
As they busied them-selves packing up they heard the young man say “Wait! What are you doing? You only have half the story. You can’t go now, turn everything back on”. And the boy slowly slipped out of his bed onto his feeble legs and began to roll up his sleeves. There on his arms was another set of scars, running down his elbows to his wrists where his mother had dug her fingernails into his arms holding on to him. “These are the scars I want the world to see! These are where my mother held on to me and wouldn’t let me go. As she looked into my eyes, telling me to hold on, but I wasn’t the one grabbing her, she was grabbing me. These are the scars she made, telling me how much she would never let me go, even if she had to be pulled in with me. These are the scars she made; looking into my eyes telling me how much she loved me. Bring that camera closer. These are the scars I want the world to see. These are the scars I’m not ashamed of. These are the scars of my mothers love.
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I want to talk about the story I just told you. I want to focus in on the young boy, on his attitude.
When bad things happen and sooner or later bad things will happen to everybody, many people, some Christians, get hung up on self-persecution.
Why me? They focus only on the bad things they can see! That’s because it’s easier to see those scars.
– When you’re sick, or when a loved one is sick or dies. That’s real. You can feel the pain. You can see the suffering. The person you love is in pain, or they can no longer be there in the way they were. Your life is filled with pain, (physical, and emotional) there is uncertainty about the future, and sometimes even Loss, & grief.
– When there are problems in the home, Anger, Fighting, Hurting each other with actions and words, Rebellion, Poverty, Hunger…. These things are easy to feel and touch. The effects / scars of these things can last through a person’s lifetime. You feel like you’re unwanted, unneeded, unloved.
– When life just seems to be unfair, you never get the breaks; you’re not an athletic, not as popular, not as cool, not as good, not as smart, not as lucky, as “everybody else.” People carry those scars around like a pass that allows them to fail,,, “I never win”, “I’m never first”, “Why bother to try…. I always loose.”
People ask the question, Why Me? It’s as if they’re the only ones to ever have to go through the trials. Instead of addressing the problem, they focus only on the impact on their lives. They become paralyzed, unable to make a decision on what to do, or how to change. Sometimes,,, People believe that being a Christian is like an immunity card that should keep them from ever experiencing hard times. They begin to question their faith, or the existence of God himself, or even fall into the trap that God is punishing them for something.
Often they even feel as if they failed in some aspect of their lives and God Himself is punishing them. As long as people keep their eyes on the bad, they will never see any good, and the devil wins.
– They will never learn from their trial;
They’ll be filled with bitterness, doubt, and anger.
– They will never grow through the trial;
They will be small, petty, spiteful, even hateful, returning hurt for hurt.
– They will never see Gods hand in it;
They will be consumed with Self-pity, and Self-loathing.
– They will never feel Gods love for them;
They’ll feel like the world is against them, They only see their own loss. They will do whatever it takes to take control of their lives for themselves. Even if it means committing suicide as one final act of control.
– They’ll never feel Gods suffering and mercy for them.
They end up having little or no compassion for others; They secretly despise when other do well, and take comfort when others face trials.
– They often turn from God, Hurt, Rejected, Lonely, and Confused.
Usually it’s harder to see the good in the midst of the bad, it’s not as obvious. It’s not what people look for. It’s not how people measure the success of a person. It may only come in such subtle forms as “inner strength”, “understanding and compassion for others”, “a need for closer dependence on God”, A growth in Godly character, or a stronger Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. It results in a heart felt calling, or an undying dedication to a ministry.
· This young boy learned something from his horrible experience. He grew. He had new understandings. He lived through a moment of the most intense love, and dedication any man could ever experience. A literal struggle of life and death over him. There he was literally being pulled between;
– Pain, Evil, Horrifying suffering and death.
He was ashamed of the scars that these things left on him.
And
– His mother’s Love, Compassion, Dedication and willingness to even suffer her own death before she would give up on him.
He was proud of the scars that these things created in his life.
I can tell you today, that there were trials and struggles in my life that I can put my finger on and tell you exactly what positive/Godly character in my life was “earned” through that trial. But as I was going through them I didn’t want to be and I could have sworn “nothing good could ever come out of it”. And as sure as I stand here before you today I can tell you that all of us will face our own set of trials, pains, struggles. Some of us are going through right now now, and some of us have yet to be pressed down, but God’s word says “the rain falls on all of us”, Jesus said, “you will have trials, and suffer persecution”. I say this not to bring you down, but to prepare you for real life. We’re all in this together, and we all need to support each other.
The only advice I can offer you are the same words the young boy’s mother cried to her son in the midst of the struggle:
Hold On! God’s love will pull you through. Even when you yourself have lost all faith. Even when you can no longer feel His love and even worse, have lost your love for him; when your spirit is so broken that there are no words to pray to God. Hold On! And He will pull you through. God our Father loved us so much that He sent His Son to suffer and die for us, that whosoever believes in Him, (whosoever Loves His Son) SHALL HAVE EVER LASTING LIFE.
The only way we will ever lose the battle is to intentionally reject God’s love for you. It’s no sin to give up the fight, to feel empty dry and lifeless. Rest your faith on God’s love for you.
Hold On! God’s compassion for you, His Mercy towards you will lift your spirit and give you the strength to go through the struggle, even when you feel you haven’t got the strength, or even the desire to take another breath, God’s mercy and compassion will comfort you if you’ll just look into His eye, and call on the name of Jesus. There IS power in the name of Jesus. The only way you will ever loose the battle is to out and out reject God’s Holy Spirit in your life.
Hold On! God’s dedication to you will never let you go, even unto his own death on the cross Jesus never let you go. He knows what you are going through, He knows how afraid you are, he knows your doubts, He shares your pain and Jesus has never let you go, and Jesus will never let you go, even unto your own death He is holding on to you. The only way you will ever loose the battle is to reject who Jesus is and what He has done.