Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?
His dad takes him into the forest ... blindfolded ... and leaves him
.... alone.
He is required to sit on a stump the whole night ... and not take off
the blindfold until the ray of sun shines through it. He is all by
himself. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the
night ... he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience.
Each lad must come into his own manhood.
The boy was terrified ... could hear all kinds of noise ... Beasts were
all around him. Maybe even some human would hurt him. The wind blew the
grass and earth... and it shook his stump. But he sat stoically ...
never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could be a
man.
Finally, after a horrific night ... the sun appeared and he removed his
blindfold. It was then that he saw his father ... sitting on the stump
next to him ... at watch ... the entire night.
We are never alone. Even when we do not know it, our Father is
protecting us ... He is sitting on the stump beside us.
All we have to do is reach out to Him.
The future is not some place you are going, but one you are creating.
The paths to it are not found but made, and the activity of making them
changes both the maker and the destination.
