Procession Caterpillars

I read an article recently about procession caterpillars – a special type of caterpillar who leave behind them a trail of silk as they walk. Other caterpillars follow behind one leader who searches for food. Once the leader finds food they are able to stop, rest and eat.

A scientist was curious to see what would happen if there were no leader. So he put them in a circle, leaving the group with no lead caterpillar. As he suspected, the caterpillars never stopped circling. They walked on and on in a circle for days until several of their number died from exhaustion. They were so caught up in their routine and trusting in their leader, they never realized that they were not moving toward food and rest.

I believe this is the situation with a lot of young people I meet today. They follow a string of trends, fads and leaders often in an unbroken circle of futility.
Occasionally, I’ll ask a group of young people who they see as the leaders in their circle. Often I’ll find that the person everyone believes to be the leader does not see him or her self as a leader, but rather as just one of the gang. When I report this back to them they are always stunned to find that they are mindlessly following someone who has no idea where they are going, much less someone who realizes that he or she is taking other people along with them.

Many young people today are following along a worn out path with no clear destination, much less one which they have consciously and prayerfully chosen. Their discernment process is characterized by “my dad did it and it worked for him” or “that seems pretty cool” or “I’ll make a lot of money” or “I think I’ll be good at that.” Let me be clear. In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these decision making factors – they are practical and often helpful. But even taken as a whole, they are not representative Christian discernment, which is a prayerful consideration of God’s will in our life.

As best I can tell, most kids’ career paths are not ones of discernment, but rather reactions to whatever feels and sounds good at the moment. Our role is not to tell kids what they should do, but as my friend Mike Patin says, to help them include God in that process.

As role models in their life our job is to help them break the processional circle. We can interrupt their apathetic march toward mediocrity and offer them hope in a life of purpose and passion. We can pull them out of their leaderless circle and walk with them along the exciting path of Christian discipleship, with Christ as our leader.

Roy Petitfils
Roy is a syndicated columnist, counselor at St. Cecilia School and graduate intern at Pax Renewal Center. He lives in Youngsville with his wife Mindi and their two-year-old son Max. For more of Roy’s columns go to www.roypetitfils.com.

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