A couple of years ago in staff meeting while discussing the upcoming Father’s Day service the story was told about young bull elephants being separated from the herd and more mature bull elephants and its effects. Then a few days later I was reading a new book, The Cry for Spiritual Fathers and Mothers by Larry Kreider. I finished chapter one and proceeded on to chapter two and the title of the chapter was YOUNG BULL ELEPHANTS! So I figure it is a God-incident.

The story is told by the Washington Post about white rhinoceros being slaughtered in a national park preserve in South Africa. Game Wardens set up hidden cameras to catch the supposed poachers. They were amazed to discover that the young bull elephants were without provocation stomping to death the rhinos. The answer was to be found 20 years earlier…

The young elephants were separated from the herd and mature bull elephants because of population problems. The scientists and park rangers discovered that without the presence of mature bulls, the young bulls were suffering from excessive testosterone and becoming violent (which is why dads wrestle with their young).

The park decided to import the influence of older bulls and the results were that the young bulls quickly learned that they were no match and the older bulls assumed their place among the herd as fathers and disciplinarians. Eventually the younger began to follow the older.

To the fatherless of this generation, God is your Father and he is inserting into your lives spiritual fathers to help establish you.

Here is a great quote from Bono on Johnny Cash…

A real threat you will not find in a 22-year-old. You just won’t. You can dress him up in leather pants, you can have him throw his TV out the hotel window. He can roar in front of all manner of white noise, but there’s no real threat when you’re a teenager, when you’re in your 20s or when you’re [in your] 30s. The real threat comes from the perspective of being in the trenches and having been around a while. All the blues guys had it. Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King. Johnny Cash has that and the voice of authority for me.