Camel Ride
My friend Dan on a “Free” camel ride.
I just returned from Egypt. As I was thinking about the epic adventure a hilarious experience with a great gospel message came to mind.
When we got to the the Great Pyramids our group of eight talked about the street vendors and their sly and crazy tactics to get us to buy things from them. We bought our tickets and walked through the gates. One of our guys named Dan was an instant vendor magnet. As soon as we stepped off the path and onto the sand Dan was immediately swarmed like a locust plague by several Egyptian street vendors. One Egyptian placed a white keffiyeh (Egyptian head cloth. Think of a Shiekh) on his head while other peddlers were putting carved statues of cats and sphinxes in his hands. He escaped this group by only purchasing four or five souvenirs that were pushed on him.
Once he broke free from the initial ambush he was again mobbed only a few steps later by camel drivers saying, “Free camel ride. Free for you. ” and “Short camel ride. Free camel rides for Americans.” Dan agreed to hop on a camel and get his picture taken. The picture you see attached is the picture I took right before the camel owner started walking Dan toward the back of the Great Pyramid. The strolling camel became a trotting camel as the camel driver started running the camel across the desert around the back side. Jared, the other guy in the photo started running after Dan and I went running for our group so we could collectively rescue him.
Jared wasn’t fast enough to catch the running camel and decided to come back for all of us. Once around the corner of the great pyramid Dan was accosted by several other Egyptian vendors. He asked them to stop several times and eventually they did. By this time they were half way around the tallest of the ancient stone monoliths. Dan asked to get down from the seven and half foot dromedary but the camel’s owner now asked for money to get down off the camel. Dan refused at first and repeated what the hooligan stated at the start that the ride was free. The sly Egyptian informed Dan, “Ride is free. You pay the price to get off.”
This is true about our choices and how Satan tries to trick us. He tells us that the ride is free. No cost. Free for us special people. We choose whether or not to get on the camel. There is always a price to pay. The ride is free but, you have to pay the price to get off.