I once led a group of 20 or so six year old's running across a huge field in their underwear.
I was 6 or so myself. I was at church camp. I was on Team Orange. I was elected the captain of Team Orange by the other kids (probably because my mom was a counselor and worked in the kitchen).
We had been doing camp activities all day. We were supposed to go back to the cabin, change, and get cleaned up. You're scored on how fast you can do that. It's like a boot camp in a way.
Get up. Make your bunk to perfection. Brush your teeth. At 0700 be in the mess hall. Mess up and get KP duty and your team could lose points.
One of the things that they had was a horn. If you heard that horn, you ran to that horn. The first team to get there gets the most points.
We're in the cabin. Very faintly I can recall hearing the horn. "Hush guys! Be quiet!"
"HORN!!!!!"
And out the door I dashed. I wanted to be first. Everyone followed.
We ran forever. The sound was coming all the way from the far end of the park. Where was it?!?! It wasn't there!
There we were, 20 or so 6 year old's, huffing and puffing and out of breath after chasing and running after something that wasn't even there.
Even worse, as I said, we were all in our underwear.
We had to walk back to the cabin. In front of all the other teams and counselors. In front of the girls who were coming back from their cabin's and going to the mess hall (I will never forget the split in the trail from the boys camp area to the girls camp area - and how we were met there).
The ultimate humiliation.
My teammates were angry with me. They were tired. And there was a lot of competitions left, and the competition was 6 years old too, which meant we were evenly matched.
Mutiny might have happened. It didn't.
Team Orange Crushed the competition, which just goes to show, you can mess up, run out in your underwear, humiliate yourself, and still end up on top.
Team Orange was relentless, but we had to work 3 times as hard to get there.
Fast forward:
I hear horns off in the very far distant. The promise of victory. Being the best. I want to bolt out and start chasing and running after those horns.
I've got everything going on. I've got resumes out. I've got emails out. I'm calling people. One the grind. The hustle. Nothing is happening. I can't make anything happen.
Step back. Take a deep breath. Wait.
Remember a lesson you learned in church camp at 6 years old. One you learned the hard way.
Don't run out in your underwear.
Be still and know God is in control.
If anything, Be The Horn. Let others come running to you.
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