Canoeing & Grace

When I was a teenager, every summer my youth group went to Possum Kingdom retreat center at Possum Kingdom Lake. We would be there from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning having devotions, worship services, outdoor activities, and awesome games. We played flashlight wars, had scavenger hunts, and best of all: canoeing!

We went every year in February and in North Texas that means it’s still very cold, so it was always dangerous to go, but so fun. Of course the camp made us wear life jackets and we were all bundled up, but it was still very chilly.

The memory that jumps to mind the most about canoeing happened when I was 15. My buddy Daniel and I had grabbed a boat and were going as fast as we could out to the middle of the lake. We figured out the right rhythm and we were flying, going through the rough waters like lightning through clouds. Then we spotted it. A canoe that was close by. And it was being paddled by two friends of ours that just happened to be girls. So, off we went, paddling at the water like seals with a beach ball.

Left and right.

Front and back.

Splashing water behind us in grand fashion.

And then we were there, splashing them to our hearts content, soaking them until there wasn’t a dry spot anywhere. And then we made the getaway.

Left and right.

Front and back.

Splashing water behind us in grand fashion.

But we realized we needed to turn a little so we leaned to the left as we paddled with the same vigor and fervor. And it happened. The exact thought going through your mind, the horror of the hour. In slow motion I felt the canoe turning over to the left. I watched as the water slowly moved towards my face, as the paddle went soaring, and water flooded into the canoe capsizing.

And then I was immersed. I took a swim in 20 degree water that not even 2 seconds before was a thought in my mind. The canoe was turned over, with no chance of us turning it back, it was solid wood after all, and so we just held on for dear life. We were so far out that there was no way we would be able to swim back to land and as the girls we had splashed, laughed until they cried, we froze our toes, then feet, legs, waist, and stomach, arms and hands away. Life guards rushed to the closest motorboat, which of course was out of gas, but they finally got a boat out to us from another dock. They pulled us on board, with little help from us because of how numb we were at the time, and then the boat driver said something I never forgot.

“I guess you learned not to turn so fast, huh?”

And as I climbed out of the boat, to laughter from all of my friends and fellow youth groupians, and walked back to my dorm in my wet clothes to change and take a cold shower, I realized that he was right.

We learned a valuable lesson that day that I now see the same as with God’s grace and our walk with Him. We go through the waters of life in our canoe, at top speeds, hustling and bustling, getting things done, and going in our regularly scheduled straight line. Then God comes into our lives and things change a little. We realize the need to be more like Christ and as we turn towards him, we never slow down to give God time to work in our lives. We as humans don’t get the fact that God waits for us to act and for us to be ready, before He gives us more or pushes us forward. We expect him to automatically bless us for the things we do “in His name”, when it wasn’t His idea in the first place.

God has a plan for our lives the moment we give ourselves to Him, and even before we do, but our feeble minds assume that giving ourselves to Him, means that we call the shots on what He wants us to do. We forget the old nursery rhyme, “Row, row, row you boat, gently down the stream,” and we hurry, the boat, quickly up the river, changing one thing after the other so quickly that God doesn’t have time to actually move in our lives because we’re “doing His will” elsewhere.

But thankfully God’s grace is greater than our failures. He is able to extend his forgiveness to us, even when we don’t deserve it, because we don’t. John 1:17 says “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Grace is unfortunately so misunderstood though, so we must be careful of how we take it. There are no instances of Jesus speaking strictly of grace in the Bible. He speaks of His love, dying on the cross to forgive of us of our sins, but never that grace is what saves us. Grace is how we find repentance, repentance is what finds salvation, and salvation is how grace is fulfilled.

So how do we find grace? By looking to Jesus Christ and not relying on our own understanding. Then when we take a boat ride and we have to make a turn, we do it slowly and contentiously.

And we’ll end up, where we were meant to be by His means, not by a lifeguard.