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Directions for Youth John Henry...What a Man OR What a Waste
 I love stories from folklore. You know the ones I am talking about, right? Like the stories of Paul Bunyan and his ox babe. It is said that Paul was so big that a nail sticking out of his boot formed the Grand Canyon. There is also the stories of Pecos Bill and how he rides the tornado.
Some folklore figures are based on real events and/or real people. One of those you might have heard often is Johnny Appleseed. There is another folklore story that you might not have heard. It is my absolute favorite. It is the story of John Henry. Like Johnny Appleseed, John Henry also has his roots from a real life person. If you haven't heard the story before, here is how it is told by S. E. Schlosser on the website www.americanfolklore.net:
Now John Henry was a mighty man, yes sir. He was born a slave in the 1840's but was freed after the war. He went to work as a steel-driver for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, don't ya know. And John Henry was the strongest, the most powerful man working the rails. John Henry, he would spend his day's drilling holes by hitting thick steel spikes into rocks with his faithful shaker crouching close to the hole, turning the drill after each mighty blow. There was no one who could match him, though many tried. Well, the new railroad was moving along right quick, thanks in no little part to the A thousand men would lose their lives before the great enemy was conquered. It took three long years, and before it was done the ground outside the mountain was filled with makeshift, sandy graves. The new tunnels were filled with smoke and dust. Ya couldn't see no-how and could hardly breathe. But John Henry, he worked tirelessly, drilling with a 14-pound hammer, and going 10 to 12 feet in one workday. No one else could match him. Then one day a salesman came along to the camp. He had a steam-powered drill and claimed it could out-drill any man. Well, they set up a contest then and there between John Henry and that there drill. The foreman ran that newfangled steam-drill. John Henry, he just pulled out two 20-pound hammers, one in each hand. They drilled and drilled, dust rising everywhere. The men were howling and cheering. At the end of 35 minutes, John Henry had drilled two seven foot holes - a total of fourteen feet, while the steam drill had only drilled one nine-foot hole. John Henry held up his hammers in triumph! The men shouted and cheered. The noise was so loud, it took a moment for the men to realize that John Henry was tottering. Exhausted, the mighty man crashed to the ground, the hammer's rolling from his grasp. The crowd went silent as the foreman rushed to his side. But it was too late. A blood vessel had burst in his brain. The greatest driller in the C&O Railroad was dead. Some folks say that John Henry's likeness is carved right into the rock inside the Big Bend Tunnel. And if you walk to the edge of the blackness of the tunnel, sometimes you can hear the sound of two 20-pound hammers drilling their way to victory over the machine Don't you just love that story! I can picture the workers cheering John Henry! I can picture the forman smiling and giving a nod to him and saying "Well done, John, well done!" What a scene that must have been. Then as they were cheering, he fell to the ground and died. Then it hit me...why would John Henry put himself in this position? What did he have to prove? Everyone knew he was the best steel-driver around. Was it pride? Was it fear of something new? Whatever the reason, John Henry was dead. We sometimes get like that in our lives, don't we. We get so caught up trying to show how good we are at something or how to show how the old ways are better than anything new. Our energies are so focused on these "worldly" things that we end up dead...maybe not physically dead like John Henry, but spiritually dead.
Chad |
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mighty John Henry. But looming right smack in its path was a mighty enemy - the Big Bend Mountain. Now the big bosses at the C&O Railroad decided that they couldn't go around the mile and a quarter thick mountain. No sir, the men of the C&O were going to go through it - drilling right into the heart of the mountain. 
1 John 2:17 says, "An the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God's will remains forever." Where is your focus? Is it on showing this world what YOU can do or is it focusing on God's will and where He wants you? Just something to think about!