When I lived in Carencro, LA in middle school and junior high, I honestly didn’t have a lot of fond memories. I was a slow talking redneck Baptist in a world of fast-French talking, Catholic Cajuns. It was a mix that was not made in heaven.

But I managed to find one group that actually accepted me. It was the Boy Scouts of America.

I had been in Cub Scouts in Jena before moving to Carencro, so the jump to Boy Scouts was not that hard. That is, until my dreaded seventh grade summer.

Our Boy Scout Troop was led by a Scoutmaster who was a Vietnam Veteran and each summer he took his troop on a 50-mile hike in the Kisatchie Forest. His motto was that the best way to get a merit badge was to really earn the merit badge in a life-or-death situation.

On this hike, we would earn nearly every merit badge offered, some on purpose, some on accident out of survival necessity, and it was one of those life-moments that I probably wouldn’t want to do again but I’m very appreciative that I had that one opportunity.

I remember three distinct instances on that hike that causes me even today to reflect upon and apply to my life.

The first occurred after our first day of hiking. Our scoutmaster had planned our hiking route on a map of the forest, using mostly gravel roads. By following this route on the map, at the end of five days we would have hiked 50 miles.

But there was a problem discovered after the first day. The map he used did not account for elevations. By using a walking odometer, we learned that with elevations factored in, we were actually hiking twice as much as the route on the map.

This meant that our route was about to change. Instead of gravel roads we were about to head off the grid, hiking straight into the deep forest, up and over and through anything in our path to get to our pickup point at the end of the week.

It was in fact, a detour of such. It was an obstacle that presented itself unannounced and we had to adjust our life to deal with the detour. We did and the detour proved to provide a much more exciting week than what was originally planned.

A couple of days later, while hiking through the thick underbrush of the forest not even being able to see the sky, we found ourselves face to face with a dead end. We had come upon a large creek that was flowing fast due to a heavy rain the day before and we had to discover some way to get across or we couldn’t make it to our rendezvous point.

Our scoutmaster came up with a plan. He would chop down a tree and fall it across the creek and we would all cross by walking the log. Sounds simple, right? It was simple; until you factor in we were all carrying 50-pound packs.

But the dead end provided an opportunity for us to learn unity as we all worked together, helping one another get across the unstable bridge to the other side.

By Thursday, we were tried and proven hikers. But the heavy rain earlier in the week changed to extreme heat and the water source of the creek was miles away. We had exhausted all our water supplies and it was beginning to get serious.

That’s when we came upon a small, stagnate pond in the middle of the forest. It was in fact water but it was undrinkable due to the disease carrying bacteria in it. Although it was wet, it was in fact a dry hole.

But alas, our scoutmaster had planned for such an event and produced from his pack a box of sterilization tablets. We filled our canteens, dropped a tablet in, and within minutes we were drinking safe, clean water.

When we finished the 50-mile hike, we were awarded our 50-mile hike badges (along with many other badges) but the lessons I learned and experience I had on that hike continue to be with me today though those badges are long gone.

In life, we too will face many detours, dead ends, and seemingly dry holes. There will be times when obstacles present itself and times when it seems there is no way out as we face dead ends. Then there will be other times when it seems as if all of life is dried up.

As long as we listen and follow the real scoutmaster, Jesus, we can be assured that there will never be any detour, dead end, or dry hole that can’t be overcome through him.

And by following him, one day we will look back upon all he has brought us through and be thankful for the lessons learned and the experience gained through all the detours, dead ends, and dry holes.