Indiana Woods.
Thick Like the Red River Gorge.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
My first two years at Eastern Kentucky University were spent completing required courses, including an introductory ecology class.
Towards the end of the semester, an all-day field trip to Red River Gorge inside the Daniel Boone National Forest near Winchester, Kentucky, was planned for all sections of the course. All the professors who taught the course would accompany us.
Among the professors was a PH. D. new to EKU from a college out west. She led my group of students.
The October sky was a radiant egg-shell blue as the sun filled the cloudless sky. A wide variety of trees were already immersed in full color change. If Tinker Bell were real, she had already sprinkled pixie dust here. Every rock, creek, blade of grass and tree shimmered and glowed.
Our prof was prepared for the elements. She wore hiking boots, field clothes, and a fancy outdoor hat to battle the sun. We were typical students. Some of the boys, who had grown up in these mountains, wore hiking boots, but most of us girls were under-dressed for a hike. In fact, some fashion conscious co-eds wore sandals.
However, we'd follow marked trails, and the prof would be our leader. We didn't need to think for ourselves--we just needed to follow.
So all the groups split up.
Our prof had never been to the gorge before, but she looked dashing in her clothes. She trotted off at a gallop with full confidence, and we fell in step behind her.
The trail paralleled the Red River, which was thankfully not deep. Occasionally she would pause to point out specific trees and plants that only grew in the Red River basin.
There were probably twenty-five students among us, but she didn't make a great effort to wait on all of us to arrive to the trees or plants before she started talking about them. When we asked questions, she wasn't patient as she answered us. She thought we should know the answers already. Some boys behind me began to grumble and hurl insults up to her.
She quickened her pace, and, before I knew it, I had to duck under tree branches and climb over small boulders. Soon, I tiptoed sideways along the edge of the trail, holding onto tree branches, to keep from falling into the river.
By now, the boys figured out she was lost. They unleashed their torment on her and picked up boulders from the trail, which they tossed into the river.
PLOP! SPLASH!!
"Hey!" they hollered up front to her. "Stop! We lost one!"
The prof kept plodding forward through the underbrush until there was no trail at all. We now walked beside the river; we were actually two steps away from the water.
PLOP! SPLASH!!
I turned around to look.
"Hey! Stop up there! We lost another one!"
The boys laughed I felt bad for the prof, but she had set herself up for this. She had presented herself as a know-it-all since we first started the hike, and now the boys tried to break her.
When she finally found her way out of the maze of the gorge, we joined our friends and returned home.
I learned a lesson that day. It doesn't matter if a person looks the part, or if she presents herself as an expert, she can still lead me down the wrong path.
Instead of checking my brain at the door to blindly follow someone else's will that day, I should have paid attention and realized I was on the wrong path.
I have to be careful who I follow in life. Seems like on every street corner there are charlatans looking to confuse people and spin our heads with their false promises.
Instead of listening to others tell me they can think for me, I need to think for myself. I can read the Bible for myself. I can attend study groups to discuss it.
I need to take ownership for my spiritual path, and not hand my brain and path over to someone else.
I followed the wrong person on my science field trip.
I sure plan on following the right person for my soul's sake.
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Lord, lead me all the days of my life.
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