(The last month or so at CLW has been exciting and
exhausting. From coffee shops to weekend retreats to dry-walling the new lodge,
we’ve been pretty busy! Though this is a great thing, we’re behind on blog
posts. We want to apologize. Fortunately, God is inspiring us to keep writing
and we hope this blesses you!)
Today Braden Saxton was in the office playing with some of
the random stuff that inevitably collects in a camp office. Blank DVDs, bike
helmets, cotton balls, sunscreen, old arrows and lots of bug spray are amongst
the many things on and around my desk. Braden grabbed a stack of orange
construction cones and carefully set them around my chair. “Now, you can’t
pass.” I began to laugh and think about a certain activity I once did with a
group of middle school students.
The activity is called “mine-field” and involves the group
guiding each student across a field of obstacles. The problem is, the person on
the course cannot see. I intentionally set up a starting line with two cones
and an ending line with two cones but don’t tell them that side boundaries
exist. Inevitably, the students guided other students through the mines and
typically succeeded in getting each person through, though not without quite a
few explosions.
Typically, the last student is either shy or not wanting to
participate so I use them as an object lesson. Very quietly I blind-fold them
and say, “No matter what anyone else says, just listen to my directions.” Then
I slowly proceed to take them “out of bounds” by going around the outside of
the mines and then back into the goal line. Never once is that student in
danger of exploding because we’re not even close to the mines. I never set side
boundaries so it’s perfectly legal.
It’s great when you hear the frustrated students, as they
attempt to guide the other yelling, “Hey HEY! You’re out of bounds!” or “Why
aren’t you listening!?” or even “Follow MY voice! Who are you listening to?!”
What an awesome opportunity! During the last part of the team building process
I can give those questions back to the students. “Who are you listening to? What
is guiding your path?”
My favorite talk is saved for the end. “A lot of times in
life, we are faced with obstacles that can be dangerous. Sex, drugs, alcohol
ect. can be very dangerous mines in your lives, leading you away from a
joy-filled existence and your hopes and dreams. Do you remember the last
student that went through the course? What happened there? They avoided the
obstacles entirely. Were they ever in danger of exploding?” I love the life
applications that we can draw from this exercise.
So, who are YOU listening to? What mine field are you
allowing yourself to brave when you can avoid it entirely? Proverbs 4:14-15
says this, “Do not enter the path of the
wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn
away from it and pass on.”
By Daniel Gilson
