I laid on my back in the water, trying to get my feet to stay planted in the foot-straps of the board. My heart was pounding. My hip was cramping. My shoulder was sore. I just wanted to be done.
The instructor motioned for me to turn around—to wake-board away from him. I tried motioning to come back to shore, but he insisted that I board the opposite way. I repositioned myself, sitting back in the water and gripping the rope tightly.
The rope began moving along the zip line, gaining speed with every moment. The momentum pulled me onto the board. But as I tried to shift my weight to turn the board, I lost balance—again—and fell forward. My hands gripped the rope tighter. The board was supposed to slip off my feet, but it remained firmly-fit. The board dragged through the water, creating enough pull backwards that I felt the muscles in my shoulder and hips pulling painfully. I let go of the rope and face-planted into the water.
The best thing you can do if you lose control on the wake-board is to let go. The momentum of the zip line pulling you—or the boat, for those in America—will drag you through the water, dislocating joints, damaging muscles, and bloodying your nose. But if you let go, the water quickly stops you.
I have a bad habit of holding onto things—things of the past. Things that hurt me. Things that still hurt me. It’s a natural reflex to grip tighter when something is getting pulled away. It takes faith to let go and trust that the Lord will protect you.
It took a wake-boarding lesson to show me how painful it is to hold-on to things outside of our control. But after feeling the pains from the pulled muscles in my chest, my hips and my shoulder, I was quick to start letting go and allowing the water to break by fall.
I’m learning to fully surrender the things of the past, and not letting those things drag you through the future.
By the end of my lesson, I learned to shift my balance appropriately. I learned to stay on the board for longer than 2-4 seconds. In my book, I learned to wake-board!!
God has used this trip to help me let go of the things of the past and to allow those things to heal. They are no longer wounds, but testimonies of how the Lord never left my side!!
