Hi Everyone;
Well, SuperScruff has arrived! It is available at Amazon, Chapters, Book Depository and in Espanola at Robinson’s Pharmasave and RemedyRX and I am “Super” excited about it!
Let me tell you a little bit about this newest edition of Goat Tails. Scruffy has arrived back home following his big “lost” adventure, but instead of being glad to be back…he was a little afraid. He really thought that he was in trouble again and would end up back in Pen Prison! But this adventure actually ended up making him famous….he had become a SuperStar! For once in his life other critters looked up to him and thought that he was wonderful! Well, as you can imagine this new fame felt pretty good…actually it felt GREAT and it went right to his head! And so a new journey of discovery…to find out what it means to be Super began…!
I can really identify with Scruffy in this adventure…can you? Have you ever set your sites on a goal…worked really hard…sacrificed your time, your relationships, perhaps even your finances to achieve it and then…after what seemed like an endless wait you have done it? You’ve achieved your goal and perhaps for a brief, sunny moment been at the pinacle of success..been recognized, even rewarded for your…greatness?? Ouch…none us like to appear that prideful…but deep inside we can be pretty pleased with ourselves and our achievements.
Well, I am (and I admit it) an eager, beaver over achiever…I love a challenge…love a contest…want, ernestly to be at the top of my…whatever I’m into at the moment. But this attitude has landed me in an emotional muddle many, many times in my life…probably because it totally goes against God’s design for me (and for all of us, I think). But God knows me and is intimately interested in my growth, so He allows me to dig the pit…into which I eventually fall…to teach me to walk humbly. Let me share a story with you…!
Quite a while ago…in my early 20’s…I lead an outpost camp, at Camp Mini-Yo-We. One of the goals of this outpost camp was to teach 14-16 year old girls how to enjoy and survive wilderness canoe trips. Well, I was the leader of that camp and as such had a fair amount of experience in canoe tripping and campcraft skills. I loved it and thought I was pretty good at it.
Well on this particular year…things had been going pretty well at the camp and I had planned a difficult canoe trip for the most senior, experienced campers. I was to lead it (of course) and I had a university student with some experience as my co-leader! Can you hear the attitude behind these words…I was so puffed up it was amazing I even fit into a canoe! Anyway…the trip was planned to go down the French River South channel, was 4 days long, was a moderate white water trip and I had done it once before…so easy, peasy…right?
Wrong! I made several crucial errors at the beginning of the trip….I had not studied the maps well enough to discover that there were 3 possible exits from the lake that we began on…I let the girls practice their navigating through the myriad of islands that dotted that lake….I failed to pay attention to exactly where we were on the map, assuming that we would just paddle to the end of the lake and naturally go down the South channel…big MISTAKE!
Well…the wind blew, the waves built and we were pushed to the north side of the lake (unbeknown to me) and so when we finally came to the end of the lake…we were well North of the South channel and I spied “the channel” straight up ahead…everyone cheered as we paddled down it, until I began to realize that it looked nothing like the South channel…had cottages on it…was not a wilderness at all…so I stopped at a dock and asked the fisherman to pinpoint our location on my map (which I now had in my possession). “Right here, Miss, ” he said as he pointed to spot on the channel! Then he said, “we don’t often get canoe trips going down this channel.” “Thank you,” I mumbled, “I bet you don’t…we were just, ah…exploring,” I explained, as I shouted for the girls to turn around…(to a chorus of moans and grumbles).
We paddled out of that channel and I assured that girls that I was in command of the map so no more mistakes would happen…(there I sat all puffed up just about ready to fall into that “pride pit” that I was digging). Up ahead I finally spied the channel, everyone cheered, happy once again! After a couple of km, I ordered a rest stop to have a snack…it was getting late…but that wasn’t really the reason for the stop…the real reason was that this channel didn’t look familiar either! I pulled out the map and once again found that I was on the wrong channel! This time there was no one else to blame…I fell into my pit, figuratively speaking and had to confess! (for the outcome of that story see…”Stuck on the Rocks, Again”)
What a difficult lesson that was…but one that I really needed to learn….one which needs repeated teaching! God has been patiently teaching me over the years…thankfully He never gives up on me!
Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.
I hope you enjoy the new book!
Happy Reading!
Lynn
