Monday, October 30, 2006
The three older boys and I had a great time at a Cub Scout campout last weekend. Although I will say that a tent is the last place I wanted to enjoy an extra hour of sleep.*********************************************
The Journeying Machine- inspired by the prodigal son's journey to the "faraway land".
Once upon a time there existed a machine that could cover great distances relatively quickly. People thought this was a great idea until they realized that it would not go to nice places but only to wilderness, lonely areas in a faraway land. Once it arrived it needed time to re-energize before it could return its passengers to their home.
Many people tried to control the machine, but they all failed. However, some of them decided that where the machine took them was not as important as the journey to the faraway land. They really enjoyed the journey. When people mentioned how bad the faraway land was, these journey-ers talked about how one has to take the bad with the good. They felt like their boring lives were less so because of the fun journeys they could take in the machine. Sure the faraway land was no fun, but it was a small price to pay for such cool jouneys.
It was not long before large numbers of people had been convinced by the journey-ers. They were helped along by the entrepeneurs who started advertising and selling trips in the machine. They made it sound like the best thing ever. Of course they never mentioned the faraway land. They acted like it did not exist.
Of course there were some who tried to help people realize that life did not have to be boring and empty; that there was much more to life than the journey-ers realized. Unfortunately, in their zeal, some of them overdid it and seemed to cause more harm than good. Nonetheless, some people were convinced, but the majority did not listen. This did not discourage the rescuers; they kept plugging along. They longed for the day when The Rescuer would arrive and take those He had rescued on the True Journey. Until that day they would continue in the grand joy of following The Rescuer.
