George; The Tough Guy
“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” - Romans 12:2
TOO COOL
I will never forget sixteen-year old George. He was a small, average built boy with an attitude. He came into my life one summer during a week-long Colorado river float trip. Someone had invited him and his two buddies to come along so that they might hear about God. I knew I was in for trouble when all three disappeared the first night. We found them up-river at another camp trying to get acquainted with some girls.
George was always trying to be cool. He tried to act cool, dress cool, talk cool, and, as I humorously learned, walk cool.
One day I took these three fellows up a trail out the back side of camp. The rocks we walked on were sharp and very hot. I didn’t mind. My feet were calloused. So were George’s buddies’. But, poor George; his feet were baby soft. I suggested shoes for his tender tootsies. Nope. Not for George. He was too tough—too cool.
We walked for about an hour while George winced with increasing pain, rejecting all offers of a piggy-back ride. He didn’t want to be known as a softy. It was so sad. No one in our group would have made fun of him. It was all in his mind; but there was no convincing George.
LOST IN A MAZE
Later, a few of us planned to swim fifty yards across the river for ice cream treats, at a store on the opposite side. We were all strong swimmers—except George. I asked him if he wanted a raft. Nope, not George. He was tough, right? Wrong. If we hadn’t been alongside him to help him, he wouldn’t have made it across.
With much help, he managed to emerge on the other side coughing and sputtering—but at least he made it. On the way back I insisted on an inner tube for swim-less George. Unfortunately, because he was such a slow paddler, the swift current took us down river and we overshot our camp.
We beached smack in the middle of a wilderness of nearly impenetrable fifteen- foot-tall river plants,. I groaned. It was going to be a big job to get through this wall of vegetation. As for George, though, he was tough. “No problem,” he boasted.
After an hour and a half of crawling on our stomachs—often over hidden thorns and spikes—we were worn out. George’s earlier optimism was fading fast. Climbing a flimsy tree, I saw that we had made little progress due to the widening strip of vegetation we had crawled into. With this bleak news, George and his buddies became desperate. One suggested we should pray.
George looked really scared. I asked him if he wanted to pray too. He gave an emphatic, “Yes!” Probably for the first time in his life he talked with God. Soon afterward, we “accidentally” stumbled onto an animal trail through the maze of bushes. Amazingly, we got out within fifteen minutes.
OH TO IMPRESS!
After that experience, I had hopes for George. He had actually prayed and witnessed a tiny miracle. But his spiritual inclinations were short-lived.
Once home from the river trip, he rejoined his old buddies. It was back to the game of trying to prove how cool he was. I felt sad, very sad. I had lost George, whom I’d come to love, to peer-pressure. Who knows where he is today.
How are you doing with mankind’s great malady—seeking to impress people? If your self-image is something you secretly struggle with, you can be especially vulnerable.
REAL STUPIDITY
This last summer, I sat with a twenty-one-year-old young man at the bottom of a cave. As we were gazing at the spiral staircase that stretched up 120 feet into the cavern, he told me something I could hardly believe.
“I climbed that last month,” he boasted, pointing up to the cage which wrapped around the towering staircase.
“You’re kidding!” I replied in disbelief. “On the outside?”
“Yep. All the way up. I almost fell at the top because I got dizzy, but I grabbed the bar up there at the top of the rail.” If he would have fallen he would have died. He said he did it because his buddies dared him to.
How incredibly stupid. And all to impress some really foolish guys.
BETTER TO BE ALONE AND LET GOD ADD
God says, “Don’t be conformed or influenced by the wrong crowd (See Romans 12:1, 2).
Five years ago, my son Jerry worked with three nice guys. One day, the car his three friends and another young man were driving on the freeway spun out of control at 110 mph. All four of them were instantly killed because no one had the courage to say, “This is foolish. Stop!” How tragic.
George Washington said, “It is better to be alone than to be in bad company.”
Bad company drags you down. Separate yourself from it—even if it is difficult. Just as 2 Corinthians 6: 16-18 says, “…for we are the temple of God, just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will My people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean and I will be a Father to you. And you shall be sons, and daughters to Me,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
God understands our need for friendships. He desires to add friendships to our lives built on love and sincere concern for one another.
Wholly trust God with this significant need of your heart. If you let Him, God will help you in His own perfect time. You will be deeply happy when you see God’s good plans for you come to pass.
Meanwhile, obey Him, by not having intimate friendships that influence you wrongly: “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Proverbs 13:20). Dare to be different than the crowd.
“By them (God’s instruction for life) Thy servant is warned, In keeping them there is GREAT reward.” - Psalms 19:11