The Singing Scoutmaster: Carrying The Canoe

Scouts, picture a portage. You hoist a canoe onto your shoulders and start walking. It's heavy and awkward, branches scrape the hull, and your neck aches. But you keep going because there's water on the other side. When you finally reach the lake, you set the canoe down, slide it into the water, and feel that incredible relief. The weight is gone.

Now imagine someone who reaches the water and doesn't put the canoe down. They just keep carrying it - onto the beach, into camp, to the dining hall, everywhere they go. You'd think they were crazy, right? But that's exactly what we do when we hold a grudge. The situation is over. The portage is done. But we keep carrying the weight because somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves that putting it down means the person who hurt us got away with something.

Here's the truth older Scouts need to wrestle with: forgiveness isn't about the other person. It's about you. When you forgive someone, you're not saying what they did was acceptable. You're not saying you have to trust them again or pretend nothing happened. You're saying, 'I refuse to carry this canoe one more step. I'm putting it down because I have better things to do with my energy.'

Some of you might be carrying a canoe right now - a grudge against a friend who betrayed your trust, a family member who let you down, or even anger at yourself for something you regret. It's heavy, isn't it? The lake is right there. You can set it down. Forgiveness doesn't erase what happened, but it frees you to paddle forward instead of standing on the shore, hunched under a weight you were never meant to carry forever.