My husband and I recently returned from a brief trip to Kauai, one of our neighbor-islands. We had a great time hiking, ziplining, photo-taking, sunbathing and...wait for it...kayaking. Though it was not our first time on a kayak, we went through the little paddle-training time with our guide before getting in the water. The person in front has one responsibility: constant, steady strokes - just keep it going. The person in back, though they also help provide speed, is entirely in charge of steering. Sounds simple enough, right? Boy did I have trouble.
You see, the 'front position' is not for the strong-willed. Over and over again I noticed that our little kayak was going in what I felt was the wrong direction. Sometimes I felt we were about to run into something, like another kayak, a tree, a rock. And every time I took a break from my steady paddling to let my husband know about the impending danger. Every time he responded, "I see it, Love". It finally occured to me that I was making things a little difficult for him. In order for our kayak trip to be successful, we both needed to play our roles, me in front being a constant paddler, and my hubby in back, watching out for us, steering us in the direction he felt was best.
Marriage requires this same skill - I have to step back and let my husband lead us, even if I might sometimes doubt his abilities or his awareness of our surroundings (sorry babe, but I'm a sinner, what can I say?). Sometimes, as we splash around in the river of life, we're hit by each other's sin. Sometimes by accident and other times intentionally.
Regardless of whether or not you're married , there's a lesson here for all of us. Life is a bit like a kayak, or at least life with the Lord is. It works best when we, as His children, just do what we're told. The difficulty comes in trusting Him to take care of us. We have to trust that He sees where we are, knows where we're going, and has the ability to get us there in one piece. And then we have to just let him do His job and stop interfering. It's not our job to question, though in His loveingkindness He's very patient when we do (and, praise God, so is my hubby!). Our job is to do as we're told, and to let God do the rest.
Let's take this beyond coffee. Do you have difficulty trusting the Lord (or, for your wives, your husbands) to lead you? Do you truly believe that He will anticipate and care for your every need? Sometimes I feel like Jeremiah 29:11 is a bit overused. But it IS true. Take comfort in knowing that the God steering your life is one who knows the end and who has your best interests at heart.
'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
2 comments:
I really appreciated this one! from a standpoint of "marriage" that I have yet to know about :) ... and eagerly wait upon to be challenged likewise ;)
but moreso now in a sense of my relationship with God...maybe even I sometimes wonder who's makeing the boat almost PLUMMET into other boats, trees, rocks, whatever!..and then right in the end, swiftly moving out of danger...sometimes I wonder whether God tests my faith, or is he just saving my tooshie! ..yet again!..after I MYSELF had tried to direct my path.
In the Godly words of Carrie Underwood:
"Jesus take the wheel"
..or paddle for that matter ;)
The big idea here for me is CONTROL. I like to be in charge of my life. And just as wives are subject to their husbands so am I the bride of Christ and subject to Him. The crazy thing is that Christ wants to far exceed are needs in our soul and spirit if we submit to him. As Lewis put it, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
We have to give over control everyday to the Holy Spirit. The main question is how do I do that?
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