Life Lessons Learned on a Canoe

We have the privilege of staying at a little beach cottage for the past few days.  When I say cottage, I mean cottage, quaint and cute and perfect for forcing you to actually be outside at the beach.  While we were there, my husband and I had the chance to take a little jaunt to the bay in a canoe.  It was a quiet ride, one where we got to mentally relax and enjoy the stillness.  Of course, the quiet gave me time to contemplate.

First, canoeing is legitimately hard work.  Like you need to be able to paddle against the waves and wake.  Sometimes we had to paddle hard.  Both my husband and I remarked on the fact that taking the time to work out makes you able to do what you should do.  The older I get, the more I appreciate the fact that I can do hard things when I need to do hard things because I force myself to do hard things at other times.  By no means is this a bragging post.  I am sharing the eye opening moment I just had.  Discipline brings freedom.  But not just freedom to do whatever, freedom to do what you SHOULD do. 

For a few years now, I have had my eyes opened to how many opportunities I get because I am able to physically do them.  I learned that I want to remain capable of taking the opportunities that come my way but that means that I need to discipline myself in the off-time and force myself to exercise and lift so that I would be prepared for the taxing opportunities.  No, it’s not always fun, in fact its often hard, but when the opportunity comes along to actually do hard work it makes it all worth it. 

Once we made it through the small inlets and their wake, we made it out to the bay.  Seriously the only thing we heard were the waves hitting our boat.  So relaxing, but as we sat and didn’t paddle for a bit I realized something a bit concerning.   

We were being carried out.   

And fast.   

Within minutes we were significantly farther out than where we originally stopped. 

Whoa.  That actually kinda freaked me out!  But it made me realize how active we must be in our Christian faith.  What an experience. I’m around Christians a lot and in a bubble of life that keeps me “safe” and enables me to be less proactive at times.  Well this experience forced me to realize how easy it is to get pulled out to sea when I’m not paying attention!  Not doing anything WILL pull you out to sea.  This is why we have the admonition throughout Scripture of actively DOING.  See, when we’re actively DOING the right thing its much harder to be pulled out.  Galatians speaks to this in 5:16 "I say then: Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

If you are walking in the Spirit, actively, you are not going to be pulled into fulfilling the lust of the flesh.  Why?  Because you’re too busy being about what you should be doing…walking in the Spirit.  Plenty of other verses speak to this proactive doing because it is imperative.  We must actively be walking after our Lord or we will get carried along with the crowds going the other way.  Old school 1980’s Christian thought “Swim against the flow”. 

Submission.  OK, this may be a hard one for a few of you to read.  Jeff and I were sitting in a 2-seater canoe, facing one another.  I like to look at my husband, he’s kinda hot, so that’s why we chose to sit that way.  Sorry if that’s TMI for some of you. :-) Well, for the first part of the trip, I faced where we were going and as we both were paddling it was not a smooth trip.  We were ALL over the place.  Like I quickly realized I am not a good person to steer.  So, we turned the canoe around and I rode backwards.  And I noticed something-the rest of the trip was significantly smoother. 

-No I didn’t see where we were going, but I enjoyed seeing my husband.  And honestly, the view was just as pretty from where I was sitting.  Fun little houses interspersed with more upscale, fancy houses, little boats, dogs barking, different flags flapping in the breeze, the ripples of our canoe oars on the water. 

-I got to relax and wasn’t the responsible one for moving the boat, I got to stop paddling and be carried by Jeff at times.  It was wonderful and restful. 

-I got a really nice reminder of the beauty of submission and the joy that it can be when I'm willing to accept it.  Riding backwards is not always the easiest thing to accept but I really didn't miss out on anything, well I missed out on a bumpy, difficult ride, that was about all. 

I wasn’t built to steer our family, but I can definitely help paddle to where we need to go.  Today was another life picture the Lord gave me. 

I’m thankful.