Going with the Flow

Going with the flow,
can take you where you don't want to go.

Yesterday my family and some friends went kayaking and canoeing.  We had a great time going down the river.  It was the perfect day to be out on the water -- not too hot or windy.  Along the way, I learned a couple of things --

Lesson 1
          Going with the flow, takes you where you don't want to go.  Even when the river bends, the water doesn't. That means that the water goes along straight until it hits the outside of the curve, where it's forced to bend.  If I let myself just drift along with the current, I would have barreled into the opposite shore.  Also, water doesn't go around trees and debris.  It goes under it.  Trust me, you don't want to go there either.

It's the same thing in life, too.  If we just drift along in life, not making intentional decisions to go the right way, we'll end up where we don't want to be.  People don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan.

Lesson 2
          Overcome the current, or the current will overcome you.  If I don't want to run into the riverbank, then I need to do something about it!  In kayaking, I can either go faster than the current, or slower than it -- but I can't sit still.  Sitting stagnant means that the current can take me where I don't want to go.  Only by going at a different speed can I maneuver efficiently.

Just recognizing that there are problems in this world doesn't fix the problems!  We have to do something about it!  We need to be proactive.  Sitting still doesn't help us or anybody else.  By being intentional about what we do and the choices we make, we can literally save lives.

Lesson 3
          Just because I don't see a rock sticking out of the water, doesn't mean it isn't there.  This one really became clear to me, after having some extremely close calls with some rather large rocks scraping the bottom of my kayak.  The thing is, even though you can't see a lot of the rocks and submerged logs in the water (especially when the water is moving fast) you can see the signs that they are there.  Even though the rocks are mostly underwater, the water on the surface moves out and around and over the rock.  This makes a telltale "V" in the water.  Sometimes it's difficult to see, especially in fast moving water, which has all kinds of ripples and waves of it's own -- but it's always there.

Sometimes we think we can ignore the ugly parts of our life and they'll go away.  The truth is, ignoring things like anger and resentment, sin and pain, only makes the problems worse.  Even though it may seem like we can't see the effects of them in our life, that doesn't mean that they aren't there.  They wait, lurking just below the surface.  And then, when we least suspect it, they raise their nasty heads.  Instead of ignoring the truth, we have to decide to confront the problem and fix it.  Pretending that sin or bitterness or hatred doesn't exist -- even though the warning signs are there -- just means we'll run into them when we least expect it and flip the boat.  And, trust me, it's a lot harder to deal with a submerged boat than with recognizing the rock and dealing with it.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."   Romans 12:2a