Our Word
There are many ways to describe "our word." It could be described as a promise, a commitment, a contract, an indenture, and on the list goes. Whatever the word used, giving our word involves a voluntary transfer of rights for a period of time obliging some asset (time, item, etc.), and providing an assurance of trust through the designated transaction.

A common promise is in marriage, another in mortgages or credit cards. Yet another promise many of us make is to God. "I promise to love you and follow you." Those words often echo as an indictment of our lives fractured by sin.

Another promise parents make is to protect their children and family. "Daddy, I'm afraid," or "Mommy, it's dark in here. Please hold my hand." Loving and protecting our kids pulses in our veins like a raging river. That passion and intent is placed there by God reflecting his attribute of being The Protector.

Not that long ago, our children were learning to ride bikes. The first was Ellen, our oldest. I was so concerned for her safety that I had her wrapped up with multiple layers of coats, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, and a helmet. She could hardly walk let alone get on a bike. Was I so inclined, I could have just laid her on her side and rolled her down the street. Forget the bicycle! What I knew was that she would have to fall off a cliff to get hurt. Fall from a bike? No problem!

I hoisted her onto the little pink bike with streamers on the handlebars. I held the back fender and ran alongside her to steady the craft. Soon she was peddling and moving more quickly than I could run....but I couldn't let go.  I feared for her that a tumble would occur and I had promised her she would be safe. Realizing I couldn't keep up, with every ounce of my being and determination, I let go. And like a bird flying from its nest for the first time, she rode off into the sunset, smiling and pumping those peddles for all she was worth. She managed to make a broad sweeping turn and stop right next to me.

Then I heard a compelling question come from under the layers of hoods, clothes and helmet. "Daddy, can I take some coats off? It's hot!" .....Ah yes, I guess it was July.

To understand the power and importance of keeping our word, we need to look no further than to God himself. You see, promises always have a cost. In marriage the cost is selflessness and sacrifice. With mortgages it is to make the payments we have committed to and to protect the property being bonded. The cost is financial, though for many providing their financial obligations require sacrifice. With God, our cost is everything. We must pursue him and him only.

And what was the cost for God to secure our future and save us from sin? His precious, precious Son. His beloved, righteous and true Son. He tore the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the temple courts as a Father tearing his robes in grief. There could be no greater sacrifice.

Thank you Father for your Son, Jesus Christ. He is risen and reigning on high. May his name be revered throughout the heavens and earth, and may our lives be a reflection of his amazing grace. God, our desire is to honor you as promise keepers, knowing that you are ever with us, growing us, and forming us into people that reflect your glory. And thank you that you are The Promise Keeper. You have secured us and you will always be with us, even in death. Help us to count the cost of following you, to pick up our cross and to pursue you with our whole being. We were bought with a price, we are no longer our own. We are children of The King.
Amen

Shannon

The Cost of Being a Disciple
Luke 14:25-35

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters?yes, even their own life?such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.'

31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."

Nathan-A Man of God

It seems like the story of the prodigal son shines light on the prodigal while the older brother and his issues slip into the shadows barely being noticed by most who read the scripture. In a similar way, the light shines on King David and the outcome of his contempt for God in 2 Samuel after committing immorality with Bathsheba and murdering her husband. Yet an important person delivered God’s message of rebuke to King David, the prophet Nathan.

I can imagine Nathan’s thoughts when God instructed him to confront David with his sin. Because of David’s authority and position, Nathan knew full well that he could lose his life as a result of the confrontation. After all, David had personally killed, or had ordered to be killed, thousands of men. What was one more? Nathan was not confronting a deplorable ungodly man, he was confronting a godly man, ordained by God himself with tremendous power and authority, yet a man who had committed a grievous sin.

And what was Nathan’s response? It was as simple as, “Yes Lord. I will go.” Outside of his comfort zone? I would say! Wrought with uncertainty and fear? Possibly. You see, for each of us the first step is to say, “Yes Lord.” The first step requires an “all-in” attitude toward the King of Kings: Jesus. Nathan knew that with God there was no half way, no turning back, no timidity, and no conditions. God called him to do the impossible and the uncomfortable, yet because of his obedience and love for God, he said yes.

And how did he do what God required of him? It required confidence and faith in the one who sent him, love of the Truth, and the surrender that reveals God’s power in every situation. You see, Nathan knew that even if King David took his life, God himself could resurrect him from the dead. He knew that even in death, the joy of eternity with God was beyond his ability to grasp, that to obey God, and to uphold his Word was worth everything. In fact, he knew that loving God was written into his very DNA, a reality that he could not stray from.

Nathan was a remarkable man, largely because he was willing to say yes. “Yes, I will follow you God no matter the cost.” He understood that even suffering for God was a joy and privilege. And so it was in the power of God that he approached David speaking the very words God had told him to speak. And for David, Nathan was the voice of God. David had spent so much time with God that he recognized his voice and respond. God had prepared David’s heart for Nathan’s words and he fell in repentance before God and the prophet confessing his sin and asking forgiveness. That is the heart of a godly man or woman. And that was the heart of David. No excuses. No justifying, simply humble, genuine repentance. You can read David’s words to God in Psalm 51 as he prayed to his Creator.

We can all be Nathans by simply obeying God in intimate fellowship and relationship. We are bearers of the Truth and should be expectantly seeking  to do his will. And if God should bring a Nathan into your life, what will you do? You see that is your story. You can ignore, or justify, or reject or kill, or your beautiful prayer of repentance could read like Psalm 51 and be recorded in the annuals of heaven for all eternity. A sweet fragrance to God. You can reflect the heart of David. You can say with him, “God, against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”

May you be washed in the blood of the Lamb. May your robes be whiter than snow. May you be kept from presumptuous sin. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!

Shannon

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Rms 6:23

Poison

When my family moved to Texas, we had no idea the abundance of wildlife we would encounter, up close and personal. Since moving into our home we have had a scorpion in the coat closet, geckos in the pantry, angry hornets in the garage, and lizards on the porch. Most recently, we were cleaning off the kitchen counter which has multiple dark flakes of stone adorning its surface, when I noticed that one of those flakes was moving. I thought I had spilled a little pepper and it moved with the currents of my activity, but then another moved, and another. A careful look revealed several tiny little ants that had made their way into the house, up the cabinetry, and onto the counter. In my defense, they did look like little flakes of pepper with legs.

I grew up in central Indiana with a family that loved outdoor sports. Particularly, we enjoyed hunting and fishing. Mom and dad would often wake us up on a Saturday morning, load the cane poles on top of the car, pile us all into the back seat of our Buick, and head to the lake. We would fish all day, enjoying the water, family and fun. To this day it is a thrill to see a bobber start moving and bobbing, anticipating a full submersion baptism from a wily fish. It’s refreshing.

Dad would take us a half block down our street to the railroad tracks that hosted multiple trains every day. Their horns would herald their coming with loud and long blasts warning of impending danger. We walked mile after mile of track hunting rabbits, quail and pheasants. At first, I hunted with a BB gun, then graduated to a 20 gauge shotgun. Having seen my 60th birthday, I am still a hunter.

It is with this attitude that I viewed those little ants; as prey. Pepper flake sized or not, they had invaded our inner sanctum and needed to be exterminated. I donned my full camo outfit, sharpened my knife and sat quietly in the corner of the kitchen, barely flinching when a fly landed on my sleeve. Then my wife walked in.

“What are you doing,” she asked? “Why are you sitting on the kitchen floor in full camo, holding an unsheathed knife and chanting The Ants Go Marching One by One?” As if someone flicked me in the back of my head, I came back to reality with a start, embarrassed that I was singing off key. All I could think to say was, “uhhh….you talk’in to me?”

I had no idea that my hunting instinct was so strong. I sheathed the knife and began studying better ways to eliminate the pests from our kitchen counter. I learned of a product called Terro. It’s ingenious. It’s a sweet sticky syrup that ants absolutely love. It’s a little like a lollipop, except instead of a chewy tootsie roll center, the surprise inside is a slow poison that is carried back to the nest, eliminating the problem.

After laying a few drops of the product on the counter, the ants quickly lined up all around it to drink in the sweet fluid. They looked like a thirsty herd of cows fighting for a drink at a watering hole. About two days later, the ants quit coming. The poison had infiltrated the nest and the ants were gone.

I couldn’t help but think of sin and the reason Jesus came to die on the cross. Sin is like that sticky syrup. It usually tastes great and draws us to it, yet the surprise inside is death. It didn’t just take out one person, but it took out all humanity. It killed us spiritually. And Jesus, dear Jesus, brought us back to life through his sacrifice on the cross. The cost was beyond understanding, the gift unexplainable. Yet he loved us and still loves us.

And here is the rub. Our sin is so detestable, so comfortable, and so familiar, that we actually try to hang onto it, even with the knowledge of what Jesus did for us. Too many live with one foot in the world and one foot at the cross. Hear this truth, according to 2 Corinthians 5, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Sin resulted in total and complete separation from God. Yet because of the love God has for you, he provided a way for you to live with him eternally, and this is a free gift through Jesus Christ the Savior. Are you a new creation? Are you a child of God? Or do you dabble in the world, in sin that like the ant poison, seems sweet at the time but brings destruction upon those who drink of it. There is no fence to stand on. There is no half way.

Prayer

God, open our eyes to who we are. A people designed by you, created by you and sustained by you. We pray Psalm 51 over our lives. Keep us from presumptuous sin, and lead us in the way everlasting.  Amen

Shannon

Righteousness

I was 17 years old in 1973. I grew up in north-central Indiana and had a passion for the outdoors. I would look at the fluffy clouds settling near the earth on the flat Indiana ground surrounding our home and imagine they were mountains. I could see myself climbing to their lofty peaks and surveying the country around me. Or walking to school in the fall, I would lean into the stiff winds that blew in that part of our state and draft in the poignant odor of tannic acid from the decaying leaves of red and brown-the smell of fall.

There were few things as comforting as piling into a mound of leaves raked up from our lawn. My brothers, sister, and I would cover ourselves up with leaves and giggle a lot. It's an amazing feeling to be close to the earth like that.

One of the sports I pursued as a youth was scuba diving. I really knew nothing about it but wanted to spend some serious time on the bottom of a lake classifying new species of fish and completing a census on invertebrate populations. I imagined myself a real outdoor specialist, particularly in the sciences. The reality at that time was that I was fortunate not to have been seriously injured by some of the stunts I pulled!

I started with a mask, fins, and snorkel, using them to collect golf balls from the bottom of the St. Joseph River in Mishawaka. There was a tee on one side of the river and the fairway on the other side. We would stand in the river waiting for someone to tee off, then grab their golf ball as it splashed into the water. We sold them back to the unfortunate golfers for 25 cents each, which added up to a fortune in 1973.

I graduated to a full scuba rig, including a wetsuit that I purchased from a pawn shop. The whole outfit set me back a few dollars, so I hung up a shingle and began a salvage diving operation. Now understand that I had never been trained in the sport-that wouldn't happen for two more years. Yet out I went, dive after dive, looking for everything from boat motors to boats that had sunk.

I was approached by a gentleman who had lent his sailboat to a neighbor's son. It was 24 feet long, and somehow the young man managed to sink the boat in 80 feet of water in a southern Michigan lake. I had never made a dive to 80 feet, but I read up on the subject and took on the job. The payday was enough to settle up on all my scuba equipment.

Six days later I dove into the cool water and headed to the bottom with a makeshift light I fabricated from an old motorcycle headlight. As I approached the bottom of the lake, something happened that I didn't expect. A deep layer of fine silt had settled there, covering it about 15 feet deep. At first it was like a cloud, then it became denser, as I swam into it with reckless abandon. About 10 feet into it, I realized that I was confused and had lost all bearing. After a few moments of panic, I came to the reality that I didn't know which way was up. I couldn't surface, and I couldn't find the bottom.

Stopping for a moment, I took a deep breath from my air tank and exhaled. To my surprise, the bubbles fell down between my legs and traveled out of site. It took me a minute to realize that I was on the lake bottom upside down and that the bubbles in fact were rising. I gathered my wits and followed the bubble stream, soon finding myself in clear, open water.

And so it is with our lives. We are swimming around in the lake of life, when we suddenly encounter a silt layer that makes it hard to grasp reality. We can't figure out which way is up or down, what is right or wrong. We flail around in the silt trying to make sense of what is going on around us, only to realize we are lost-hopelessly lost.

There is only one answer: follow the bubbles. Those life-saving bubbles are found in the Bible, the Word of God. They are the source of all truth and knowledge. When inconsistencies are planted in your heart, follow the bubbles. When the world seems like it is crashing down around you, follow the bubbles. When a truth is presented together with a lie, follow the bubbles.

You see, man's wisdom is not wisdom at all. It is filled with compromise, conflict, and death. But God's wisdom... oh, God's wisdom is like a radiant light shining on a high hill into a world of darkness. The righteous flock to it. God's wisdom, through his Word, brings life. It protects, it renews, and it saves. Praise be to the God of Mercy.
Mr. Dare

Ephesians 5:1-14
1 Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person such a person is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

A Heart for God

One of my first assignments as a teacher was to teach computers to a group of PreK students. There were approximately 2 classes of 20 kids each. Now I consider myself a pretty stable personality, taking each thing in my day with a positive attitude and belief that I can make a difference, yet the thought of teaching over 40 Pre-K students settled fear down deep in my soul!

I can fix cars, hike for miles, cook a pretty tasty meal, and even wrestle a polecat if it came to that, but teaching Pre-K students scared me to death. Just the thought of it caused my jaw to lock up and resulted in sleepless nights. Though it was midwinter, I was sweating like I was standing in Death Valley in July! Even though our family consisted of 4 little girls and a little boy at the time (you would think little kids wouldn’t phase me), I can remember few things in my life that have caused anxiety like the thought of teaching Pre-K kids.

Well….don’t you love them you may ask? Of course I do, one or two at a time, but when they come at you like ants from an ant hill … well …..I was walking in fear. You see, I was writing my future (a really bad idea) and the last chapter of my book had a tragic ending; chaos and inadequacy. I had to check my heart. God called me to Christian education and I had to dig deep to understand why.

I started asking him lots of questions. “God, are you sure you want me to teach Pre-K kids?” “God, this is an overwhelming task. I can’t do it. Can I do something else?” "God, what happens when they all have me tied up in the middle of the computer lab and begin to set fire to the keyboards?” You can imagine where my imagination took me.

I quickly learned that fear breeds a future of mistrust and ignorance. It grabs your heart and twists it into alternate and contrived realities that fuel a downward spiral of thoughts and actions. And that is where we need to start our battle; our hearts. You see God did not design us to cower under a rock and fear what comes into our lives, rather, he designed us to be in fellowship with him, to trust him and to courageously live in this world. And that in the power and authority given us as heirs to the Kingdom of God through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

God wants your heart, not some of it but all of it. He wants you to stand in the gap for righteousness and not fear what may come your way, rather transform it through the power of the resurrection! As you surrender your heart to the Living God, you walk as light on this earth; ambassadors of the Most High. The words you speak from a heart in submission are as if Christ himself were speaking them. You are royalty, representing the King.

When those little ones came into my classroom my heart melted, all fear was gone. I settled them in front of their computers and began to gently instruct them. One little girl said to me, “Mr. Dare, I can’t make the mouse work.” I came to her aid, laying my big ole grizzly bear hand on top of hers, and began moving the mouse, and her hand, showing her how to left click and right click to get the proper results. When she tensed a little out of frustration, I said these very words, “Honey, now watch how daddy does it.”

It took me awhile to realize what I had said. My heart was overwhelmed with compassion for those kids and I instinctively steered them in the right direction out of love and a desire to see them succeed. I no longer feared those Pre-K classes. In fact, they became my favorite classes of all times. They needed help, they wanted help, they expressed their need, and I respond.

That is your Father in heaven. He loves you beyond any understanding. He wants the very best for you and he is more than able to instruct you and provide you with whatever you need. There is simply one thing you must do to receive his salvation, that is to say yes. To tell him you need him and you need his help. To articulate that you are too weak to walk in your own strength, and he will respond...in spades. He will put his gentle hand on you and say, “Dear one, watch how daddy does it. I have you, and I love you.” His perfect love will cast out all fear. Praise be to the God and King of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ.

Shannon

Taming a Wild Beast

It was a frosty November morning in central Indiana. My wife and I had purchased an 1850’s, hand-hewn, square-log cabin. The logs were 18 inches thick and were beautiful in character and stature. It sat atop a hill in a heavily wooded patch of ground near Nashville, Indiana; the Carmel California of the Midwest.

The home had a lot of history associated with it so we had to walk through a series of historic home covenants to do the remodeling we desired. One of the improvements was a central wood burning furnace. It was “the thing” to do in Nashville and seemed logical to me. Imagine heating your home for free! The house came with over three acres of oak trees.

It seemed like a good idea until this particular day in November when I thought my lungs were going to burst from the effort involved in securing my free wood. My free heat source had already cost me $500 for the newest and best chainsaw, $60 for a peavey to roll the logs, $100 for a splitting maul, axe, and appropriate wedges, $600 for a beat-up truck to haul the wood, and the list goes on. Probably the most expensive part of harvesting the wood was the weekly visit to the chiropractor. After stacking each cord of wood, it seemed the visits became more frequent.

By the end of the winter I had cut, split and stacked 14 cords of wood, burning nearly all of it. If you are unfamiliar with firewood measurements, a cord is a stack of wood 4 feet wide by 4 feet high by 8 feet long ….a lot of wood! I did that 14 times. Suffice it to say I now use a gas furnace. In fact, I love gas furnaces. Well, if the truth were to be known, I strongly dislike wood-burning furnaces….not the furnace itself, but the process involved in loading it with fuel. It’s a little like keeping the furnace stoked on a steam engine; whether coal or wood, it’s a hard, strenuous, and dirty job.

I learned a lot about wood that winter, and about the tools used to cut it. The pride of my tool stash was my axe. It was beautiful. I kept it razor sharp so that it would cut cleanly through the wood in as little time, and with as little effort as possible. It was a great tool. What was created for good however, could be used for evil. Laying in a drawer next to the stove in our home is an absolutely beautiful chopping knife. It is perfectly balanced and sharp making short work of a head of cabbage or a bag of carrots. It is a tool, well designed for its intended purpose, yet, it could also be used for evil.

I grew up hunting. The days I walked beside my father hunting birds with a shotgun are some of my best memories. I loved the one-on-one time with him and I loved getting outdoors. The guns we carried were beautiful, perfectly suited to the activities we engaged in…yet, they could be used to bring harm to others.

We each carry a tool designed by God and given to us by him. It is our tongue. Our tongue is perfectly suited to speak life into ourselves and other people. It is designed specifically to utter praises in word and song to our Creator and source of life. As God’s most remarkable creation, we are formed in his image; not for ourselves, or our own pleasure, or our own pursuit, rather we were formed to accomplish his purposes and to enjoy him forever. We are marked with majesty, and in Jesus Christ, have the hope of an amazing future with the King of Kings. We are royalty!

Yet, our tongues, intended for good, are often used as an instrument of destruction. The process is no different than using an axe, or knife or gun to bring harm to others. We conceive a plan - a self-centered plan - we birth it in our minds, we seal it in our hearts, and we carry it out through our tongue. The words we speak are more powerful than all the weapons created by men. The weapons of men can take our life, yet our words can fracture our very being, our image in Christ, and our peace.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. (James 3:3-5)

Proceed with caution dear ones. Walk in humility, the humility of Christ. Guard your tongue being careful to honor God in all you do and say. I love the heart of David and his wisdom. Though imperfect, he had a heart for God. In Psalm 37:30 he states, “The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, their tongues utter what is just.” And again in Psalm 39:1 he says, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”

We each will stand before God the King one day. My earnest desire is to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Amen!
Shannon

James 3:7-12
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. 

A Short Trial

We were in a situation that we had no means of getting out of. We were canoeing the Rifle River in the Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan on a chilly spring morning. The river was higher than normal because of the spring rains, but it wasn’t so high that it was in flood stage.

Becky (my wife) and I started out in a rented canoe on that crisp early morning shortly after we were married. The year was 1977. It was a year of accomplishment in the U.S.; Jimmy Carter became the President of the United States, Apple organized as a company, Roots was playing on TV, the Space Shuttle program began, and Star Wars opened in theaters in May.

The cool dark water raced down the river succumbing to the gravity that drew it ever forward. As the morning advanced and the scenery exploded, the sun began to warm our backs and our shivering appendages. We entered an area of slack water that slowed our canoe to a more manageable speed. Heavy brush hung over the banks dragging the water as it passed by.

We lazily rounded a bend and then they hit. Little black buzzing insects by the thousands descended on us biting our arms, necks, legs, and whatever else they could find. They were deer flies. I’m not sure where they came from but they were insidious, turning a pleasant morning into a tortuous expedition through the jungles of northern Michigan. Suddenly we wished for the fast water again! We just wanted to get away.

We swatted at the flies, swung our paddles at them, sprayed them with bug spray, pulled our hats down over our heads, and tried anything else we could to stop the little blighters from their sole-focused mission. Our combined efforts didn’t seem to make a dent. Though little black carcasses were strewn about the bottom of the canoe, their numbers were so great it was like trying to stop a leak by putting your finger in a dam. For every one that fell, a hundred more took up their charge.

“Paddle!” I yelled as one of the critters drew blood on the back of my leg. We felt like we were in the Kai Opua Canoe Club racing an outrigger down a swelling wave in the Pacific. We dug the paddles deep and drew them with all our strength trying to get some distance between us and the flying black plague. They were just too fast.

Near exhaustion, we noticed the river start to build up steam. The current quickened and the canoe soon flew downstream well out of the domain of our adversaries. What a blessing, what a relief! And then it quickened some more, and more, and still more. Within minutes we were staring a class 3 rapids in the eyes with no exit plan. We remembered the rapids notated on the river map, and that inexperienced canoeists should portage around them, but it was too late.

Down a steep incline of water we went, riding the rooster tail of white water atop the crest. “Hang on!” I yelled as the canoe listed to port after hitting a sizable rock. It didn’t slow our progress but did throw us nearly sideways as we dipped into another hole swirling angrily with foam. The front of the canoe shot out of the hole and landed hard in the rapids beyond. It was like a water ride at Disney World. We did everything we could to keep the canoe upright and off of the rocks.

About two-thirds of the way through the rapids, the stream split, one branch going right and the other left. In the middle was a little island and a large log jam. We were headed straight for it. I slammed the paddle down nearly to gravel trying to turn the canoe one way or the other, hoping to miss the imminent collision. It seemed at the last moment, the bow finally yielded to my pleading, slipping into the water of the left branch. As quickly as they started, the rapids ended. We glided into a little cove behind a stump, thankful for the reprieve and safety of still water.

We sat there dazed, trying to take in everything that happened. As we assessed the situation, we had all of our body parts, no broken bones, no drownings, no bumps or bruises. Other than a few bloody scabs from the deer flies, we were no worse for wear. In that short time we experienced fear, shock and a loss of control, yet God had us the whole time. Though overall the trip was great, there was a short time of uncertainty and vulnerability.

And that describes our lives; your life. You plan, you invest, you make decisions, and you work. And most of the time life is good; filled with joy, accomplishments and peace. And then you turn a bend in the river and the deer flies swarm over you and start biting, only to be followed by a stressful, at times terrifying path that seems filled with hardship, pain and danger.

How do you make it through those times? How do you walk through the red-hot embers with bare feet? You see, God knows something you don’t. He can see the end of the trip, the terminal point of the hardship. He knows that the trial will end and that a bright future is ahead. He asks us to embrace the hardship and grow through it; learning faith, and perseverance, and patience, and hope. Learn to lean into him drawing from his strength, for his yolk is easy and his burden light.

He loves you beyond your ability to understand, and he holds you in his hands. He knows your name, and he hears yours prayers. We are never more holy than when we are at our weakest; focused and trusting only in God. He is our Rock. He is our Salvation – praise him!
Amen!

Matthew 11:25-30
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”