We’ve All Heard The Saying about being up a creek without a paddle. It refers to being caught in a predicament with no resources with which to extricate ourselves. But even with a paddle, the paddle has to be used, and used properly, before the goal is reached.
Think of your life as a ride in a canoe and your decisions and actions as your paddle strokes. You get where you’re going one stroke at a time with the decisions and actions you make. If you are married, think of your spouse as riding in the canoe with you. If you row together you make progress, but if only one of you is rowing, or one is trying to steer in another direction, the canoe will falter or go around in circles.
Think of your brethren and sisters as sharing a canoe with you. Again, by rowing together the canoe will move swiftly toward its destination, but if each one in the canoe is doing his own thing, the canoe is in danger of going nowhere, or, worse still, sinking.
How important it is that those in the canoe with us are rowing in unison so that the paddle strokes propel us in the right direction. It is critical that their decisions and actions are all in accord, that our goals are the same. We cannot row toward two different ports at the same time.
Paul told us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. This maxim applies to riding in a canoe as well. We should not get in a boat with those whose decisions and actions are contrary to ours. We need to be clear in our mind that we are headed for the kingdom, and then choose companions that share that goal.
We often sing the hymn, “With Christ in the vessel we smile at the storm.” There are going to be storms in our lives; we can depend on it. When the Lord Jesus was fast asleep in a little boat with his disciples rowing feverishly across stormy seas toward shore, all to no avail, they awakened him and said, “Master, master, we perish.” The words of Christ brought instant relief as the wind stopped and the waves flattened.
On another occasion we read, “When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, and they thought he was a ghost, they cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed.” Jesus wants us to rely on his strength as we struggle through life’s turmoil, so that we can sing with gusto the words, “With Christ in the vessel, we smile at the storm.”
The big question we must ask ourselves is this: Is Christ in our vessel? Are we rowing in the right direction? Are the people in the boat with us of like mind? Are our decisions and actions, which represent the paddle strokes, taking us in the right direction? They are not if we have chosen to climb aboard worldly boats going in the wrong direction. They are not if we and our companions are more interested in the pleasures of this life.
Jonah made wrong decisions and acted wrongly. Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He first went to Joppa, found a ship, paid the fare, went aboard, and fled the work of God. At that point he was in big trouble. We will find, as did Jonah, that there is nowhere we can go to hide from the sight of God and our responsibility to Him. God sent a storm that almost cost the lives of Jonah and all the others in his boat. It was only when Jonah separated himself from the boat traveling in the wrong direction and threw himself on the mercy of God that God was able to save him and redirect him in the right path.
At times we also have made wrong decisions and sailed with the wrong people toward the wrong destination. Fortunately, God cared for Jonah in spite of his rebelliousness and brought him back, and we pray that our God will be merciful to us for the wrong decisions we have made as we paddle across the seas of life.
The lesson we want to learn and remember is that we do make our own decisions and plan our own actions, and God will let us do this even if He is not pleased with our choices. Since He loves us, He often sends a storm to help us see the folly of our ways. We need to look out across the stormy seas and see the Lord Jesus walking on the water. He will appear to walk right past us unless we cry out to him in our distress.
Choose the crew of your canoe with care. Make sure all of them share your goals and want to sail to the same port. Then we can sing as we row along, “With Christ in the vessel, we smile at the storm.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One