elephant tales

This morning, my friend Ray told me a story about elephants.

He said that when an elephant is very young, its trainer tethers him to the ground. Small and weak, he is unable to break the hold of even a simple rope.  He struggles and struggles against it to no avail.

Spending his entire youth pulling and fighting a rope that won't give, the elephant becomes adjusted to his life in captivity.  As the years pass, he grows much bigger and stronger.  He towers over his trainer.  He is a fierce and mighty creature.

But though the elephant now weighs several tons, though he possesses the power to trample everything around him, he remains tethered to the ground.  He remembers the years of struggling against his rope, knows too well the feeling of failure that accompanied his every attempt to break from captivity.  He will never run free.  He will never exercise the sheer power he was born to display.  He could be a force to be reckoned with.  Sadly, the elephant looks to his feet and sees a rope that is stronger than he is.

By now it should be fairly obvious that we have much in common with our elephant friend.  If we look to the ground, we will see the fears that keep us "tethered" in place, incapable of moving forward, blindly unaware of the great strength and purpose for which we were designed.  We are wild animals!  We want to play in rivers, run through plains, and let out our savage trumpet calls for the world to hear.  But with powerless chains around our ankles, we settle for the peanuts thrown at us when we perform our cheap circus tricks.

It seems the only answer is to never stop struggling against the rope.  There will be times when it will seem to defeat us, or moments when the memories of our failings weaken our resolve.  But I know in my soul the victory that awaits us when we believe more in our futures than our histories.  We will feel the strength in our legs and the grit in our hearts.  Here's to the struggle my friends, and here's to that place we will meet together one day, where elephants go to do all of the things elephants should.  Where we will run and shout and holler and be free and wild.