The Dream
I had a dream...
I was visiting a church that had the reputation of having an outstanding
Royal Ranger program. As I entered the church, I asked the usher where
the Royal Rangers met. He promptly directed me down the hall and told me
how proud he was of the Royal Ranger program.
I opened the door to the Royal Ranger room and was startled by what I
saw. There in front of me was a large group of boys - all in full Royal
Ranger uniform. The leaders were there in full force. I immediately
noticed that quite a few of the leaders were wearing NTC patches. I
thought to myself-has every leader gone through NTC? Another survey of
the room confirmed that every leader was a graduate of the National
Training Course.
Before long, a tall, clean cut man built like an Army drill sergeant
stood up in front of the room and shouted, "FALL IN!". The boys and
leaders fell into a perfect formation. The room was silent, not a single
person spoke or moved. After the opening prayer, the outpost Senior
Guide was called forward to lead the pledges. The senior commander made
a few announcements, introduced me, and the outposts were dismissed to
their classrooms. I watched in awe as the boys and leaders filed orderly
out of the assembly room. Very little was being said, yet each person
seemed to know exactly what to do and where to go.
When all the groups had left, the senior commander came to the back of
the room where I was standing and invited me to join him in touring the
classes. We walked into the first class of Trail Rangers and listened to
the leader's discussion of their recent rappelling trip. He was excited
about the courage that was shown by the boys as they descended a 100
foot cliff. With great enthusiasm, he began to outline plans for the
next trip to the mountains in two weeks.
I was quite caught up in the plans for the next outing when the Senior
commander nudged me to go to the next classroom. Here we saw a group of
Buckaroos sitting around an indoor campfire. The Trail Boss (Buckaroo
commander), dressed in a western style plaid shirt, blue jeans, boots
and a Texas "ten-gallon hat", was telling the boys about the old west.
He was trying to show how the settlers always had to be alert and aware
of their surroundings. The boys were so intent on his story that they
didn't even notice us as we came in, listened, and left. Having taught
Buckaroos myself, I could not believe how attentive and well behaved
these boys were.
During the remainder of the meeting time, we visited many of the other
classes. I observed men teaching ropecraft, hiking, first aid,
recreation, leadership and many other Royal Ranger subjects. I was very
proud of the outpost that I was senior commander of; but, I was
beginning to feel a little inadequate after my tour of the classes.
After the meeting was over, I went with the senior commander to his
office. All of the outpost commanders came in with their weekly meeting
reports. The commanders had a short meeting and left. I was about to
tell the senior commander how impressed I was with his outpost when I
noticed the Royal Ranger flag that was on the wall above his desk.
It was different. It didn't have the four gold points, four red points,
and eight blue points that I was used to seeing. Some of the points were
missing. The points that were there weren't all the same size. It looked
very strange. There were only three gold points-one point appeared to be
the "normal" length, one was very short, and the last one extended
outside the boundary of the flag. The blue points weren't all there
either. There were probably only five or six of the eight that were
supposed to be on the emblem. These points were even more distorted than
the gold points. They were all different sizes-skinny, fat, short, long.
One of the points didn't even come to a point, it had a blunt end on it.
The most obvious fault of the flag was that the four red points were
missing.
With some hesitation, I asked the senior commander what was wrong with
the Royal Ranger emblem on his flag. He looked rather puzzled and asked
what I meant. I began to explain to him that some of the points were
missing and all the points on the flag were different sizes. The
commander lowered his head into his hands, shook his head, and then
looked back up at me.
This strong man that had been so much in control of his outpost all
evening and was clearly respected by all the boys and leaders suddenly
looked like a young boy who had just been caught doing something wrong.
"I'm sorry." he explained, "This has happened before. You see, this is a
very special flag. To me and all the people in the church, this flag
looks perfectly normal. It seems that only someone who is not involved
with this church or our Royal Ranger program can see what you are
seeing. The emblem you are seeing reflects our true emphasis in the
Royal Ranger program. We don't teach a whole lot of Bible to the
boys-that is what Sunday School is for. We don't teach the doctrines of
the church-that is the Pastor's job. The boys never miss these teachings
because we keep them busy with crafts and activities. Actually, I don't
think we could find time in our meetings for a Bible study. Our program
looks like a perfect Royal Ranger outpost. We are perfect in what we
think we should be and what we think should be taught."
I opened my mouth to interrupt the senior commander and woke up from my
dream. ....
The image of this distorted Royal Ranger emblem and the words of the
commander of the "perfect outpost" were heavy in my mind and heart. What
would others see if I displayed a "reflective flag" during our outpost
meeting? Would our program reflect all the points? Would all the points
be the same size? How do others see our program? Then I looked closer -
what does the flag of my life show? What do others see when they look at
me?
Well I found it interesting,
Lt. Cmdr. Juan Origel
Monte Horeb Church
Outpost 411
Tempe, AZ
:)
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