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| This photo can reflect achievement or disappointment depending on if you went into the right forest. |
“A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room.”
Lord Baden Powell
I have felt the most opposition this time in my life, more than at any other time in my life. There are two things that are the source of it....
Let me tell you the first one. Actually the best way to paint the picture would be to post every one of the texts I get before a campout from the boys about why they don't want to come to a campout or what is preventing them from coming to a campout. But that would take up pages and pages of blog and then nobody would get to the good part at the end. I counted over 700 texts on my phone between me and some of the boys about why they didn't want to come to the Klondike Derby. I am going to ask one boy if he would allow me to post his and mine conversation. Some of the boys' reasoning was conflict with another boy, some were not sure about snow camping and other's were not sure why they didn't feel like coming. This one I am posting would fall under the "not sure why" category. Here is the conversation:
This young man had a great time at the Klondike by the way, and created a slide into a snow cave that made it look like penguins were sliding down into the snow cave. :) He was really glad he didn't quit and learned a lot. If you read his comments carefully it will reflect that the next time we talked about an activity.
Satan desires us to fail. Period! He will go at lengths to cause that failure. We need to be able to recognize when the opposition is happening and to push through it. This morning for my scripture study I read about Lehi's dream. There is a tree which is called the tree of life and if you get to it you receive God's love. Satan put in the path many obstacles to prevent people from getting to that tree. God put an iron rod next to a pathway so that people could hold onto the rod to help them get through all the mists of darkness and to the tree. They just had to hold on and press forward. Satan put people with nice worldy things and expensive attire to mock and jeer at the people holding onto the rod. They tried to get the people to think that what they had was more important than God's love. Some of them fell away and only a few made it to the tree. Only a couple of Lehi's family made it to the tree which was a source of sorrow for Lehi. Those that hung on and fought through the opposition are the ones that made it and received the reward.
Satan does that to Boy Scouts. He discourages them not to go to campouts and activities. He entices them with technology and other worldy things. He tries to get them not to follow the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. If they do not follow those prime guidances then he knows there's a good chance they will not be happy later on. He knows there's a good chance they will fail later on in life or may not reach their full potential.
The same thing happens to adults (and this is my second source of opposition this year). We have a wonderful training program called Wood Badge that leaders resist strongly going. Myself, and others, have been trying to help recruit leaders of the Boy Scouts and other leaders in our Valley who would benefit from the program to go. I calculate there are over 10 people from each Unit who should go just by fulfilling the responsibility of their calling. That means in our Zone there could be over 100 attendees this year. I know I have spoken to at least 30 people about Wood Badge and emailed a bunch of others. I know that Ryan has probably spoken to even more than myself. The only people that I have gotten to sign up are those who I am making go because they work for me. I know there are a couple of people still thinking about going but I know of nobody signed up from our valley yet. Imagine the pool of people in the rest of Eastern Idaho. We should not have any problem getting enough to attend so it surprises me our enrollment is so low. If you know of anybody who should go, please show them this blog.
Please, please, please. If you have been invited to go to Wood Badge, please pray about it and go. Don't push it off. If you push it off, it is similar to letting go of the iron rod. I personally, pushed it off for a number of years, and found to my dismay that I wasn't doing everything as good as I could have or should have been doing. I'm still not perfect, but now I have a much better compass to keep me on the right path.
There's a story of a bunch of explorers who were making a road through the jungle. Every night they would calculate how far they were going and would pat each other on the back because they were making incredible time. They were going to get that road done in record time and the President of the country was going to pay them a bonus and everything. They were so proud of themselves.
One day the leader decided to climb a mountain and see if they were near the end of the jungle. He was sure they were close. When he got to the top of the mountain he discovered that somewhere along the way, they had moved off course and were in the wrong jungle, going the wrong way. Imagine his dismay.
Fellow scoutmasters, cubmasters and all other leaders, it doesn't matter how much time you are making and how good of a job you think you are doing, if you are completely in the wrong forest.
I was just like those explorers and going to Wood Badge was like the guy climbing the mountain. I found out through Wood Badge that while I thought I was doing good, I was going the wrong way. The training at Wood Badge is the way we get into the right forest and not only that, get through the forest better and complete our goal.
Its important to recognize that if we have been invited to go, and we somehow shrug it off, that it is ultimately Satan and his opposition telling us that its not important enough to go. Go anyway, despite all worries and excuses you can come up with and you will be blessed for it. I can promise you.
