So… I have this problem where I think extremely deeply about everything… and when I say everything, I mean absolutely everything.
I have a knack for taking every-day situations and turning them into some deep, philosophical revelations in my mind. Seriously, I can’t even go on a run without coming to some kind of conclusion as to how I can apply the steepness of the hill I just ran up to the problems I encounter in life.
Sometimes thinking this deeply about life’s situations gets me into trouble, because I start to over-think and create false scenarios in my mind… but most of the time, my brain’s processing is really cool.
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Allow me to share my latest revelation with you (it’s one of my favorites):
A few weeks ago I went white-water rafting on the class 5 rapids of the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda, with seven of my mightiest World Race companions and quite possibly the coolest Australian rafting guide on the face of the planet, Tom. The 9 of us laughed together, panicked together, and conquered together. It was most definitely one of the best times I’ve had on the Race thus far.
Out of the 8 rapids we faced, our raft flipped in 4 (each because Tom forced it to, of course). & Each flip was a different experience.
If you haven’t ever been white-water rafting, let me just tell you, class 5 rapids are IN-TENSE. They’re quite terrifying, actually. We found ourselves a few times screaming, “WHY did we choose to send ourselves into this mess?!” as we would continue to paddle as an adrenaline-rushed team towards the powerful, raging rivers before us.
If we were lucky enough to stay in the boat throughout the rapid, we would all lift our paddles into the air with gigantic smiles on our faces and chant our “huzzah’s” and our “OMG HOW DID WE MAKE IT THROUGH THAT’s?!”, as well as our “We can now conquer the world’s!”.
If we weren’t so lucky, then our reactions were very much different. From my experiences in flipping, things would go one of two ways: I would fight against the current while underwater, desperately seeking to help myself surface so I could get some air or I would relax and just let the current take me to the surface to reach air as nature seems to have things work. It was the times that I stayed relaxed and trusted that I would be able to breathe soon that I made it to the surface the most quickly. In the moments that I struggled, I ironically enough stayed under water longer than I should have had to.
I bet you can see where I’m going here…
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God is a mighty, rushing river. He is all-powerful, complex, and can be quite intimidating at times. When I dive into His rapids, I am diving into the unknown – for I literally have no clue how things will eventually turn out. However, because I know that He is fun and good, I choose to paddle myself into His direction anyway, trusting that He will help me make it through in one way or another.
At times, I make it out of His rapids smoothly. However, at other times, the journey is a little more fierce. Sometimes I get thrown out of my comfortable little boat and into the raging waters. Sometimes I literally find myself wrestling with God.
In the times when I get thrown into the rapids that God has planned for me, I find that things can go one of two ways (just like they did in the literal rapids I mentioned earlier). I can either choose to fight against God as I am submerged in His rapids and try to make myself surface in my own strength or I can sit back, relax, and trust that He will safely bring me to the surface as He has promised to do so. I can choose to fight against His plan and the things He has brought into my life or I can embrace what He has in store for me. Essentially: I can choose not to trust or I can just simply trust. Just like in my rafting situations, it’s the times that I choose to relax and trust that I come back to the surface more quickly. It’s in the times that I wrestle with God and try to do things on my own that I stay in the chaos of life for longer than I should.
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Life really is that simple. If we choose to trust God and all that He has in store for us, our lives will run a little more smoothly and will result in peace more quickly than if we choose not to trust. If we try to do things on our own, we will stay under for longer than we should.
To trust or not to trust… that is the question:
I hope to choose trust more and more every day.
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