Get Lost!

by Captain Terry Camsey – 

Have you ever been in the situation where you are trying to find your way somewhere for the first time, but get lost? Then, fortuitously, you see someone driving by whom you recognize and decide to follow them…only to find later that they are not making for the same destination! It’s frustrating, isn’t it? We don’t like getting lost even though, sometimes, we may by accident find a better way of getting to where we want to be.

I’ve read articles where authors recommend that we experiment by taking different routes home. They suggest it to try to put a little excitement into our otherwise tedious routines. I don’t know about you, but I never seem to have enough time to do those “fun” things. Usually I am chasing the clock to get to where I want (note I didn’t say “need!”) to be at the appropriate time…or, preferably, before that, I guess, goes back to the time spent in the military where absolutely no excuses were accepted for tardiness. And I can tell you, it is no “fun” thing to have to report sick in person when you are really too sick to make the journey. That’s why so many stayed in barracks instead of living out, an option for us “less military” types! I guess many soldiers have, over the years, “trodden that same road!”

It can get very boring, though, to go over the same ground time after time. I find walking regularly to be deterring, especially if it involves going over the same ground again and again.

Even saying that reminds me that, once again, they are pouring asphalt into the road at Portuguese Bend. It continues to sink, and despite using what, by now, must amount to millions of dollars worth of asphalt, they continue to pursue that option to “tread” if you like, the same “road” for temporary easement of the discomfort of an uneven road surface. There must, I’m sure, be a more effective and long-lasting means to solve the problem–maybe a bridge from the two solid sides–but, for whatever reason, the authorities decline to use it.

Of course, if you keep treading the same old path, it eventually becomes a rut. Remember the story of the rabbit hopping along a rut and seeing a toad in the bottom of it? He asked the toad why he didn’t get out. The toad told him it was impossible. A little while later, the rabbit passed back the same way and came face to face with the toad. “I thought you said you couldn’t get out!” he commented. “I had to,” said the toad…”a truck came along.”

I’ve had the words of “Onward, Christian Soldiers” in my mind for most of today. The words keep echoing, “Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.” It’s a nice thought, if we are talking about following “Christ, the royal Master,” but not if we are merely treading down the same ground that our pioneer Christian fathers found so effective a route in their day to get to their destination. If, in effect, we tread no new ground (slavishly following the methodology of our predecessors), despite the fact that we live in a totally different world. Notice I said “pioneers,” because they, like Christ himself, trod new ground…forged new paths…did whatever it took to accomplish the task he set them.

We need to be cautious, too, since–as Texas Bill Bender suggests in his book, “Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On!”…

“Just ’cause you’re following
a well marked trail
don’t mean that
whoever made it
knew where they
were goin’.”