Psalm 145:17 “The LORD is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.”

White-water Rafting. No, level 3 White-water Rafting. To me, it is a joy previously undiscovered this side of heaven. What a blast! I had heard stories and seen images of the activity, but I had no idea it could be this exhilarating! Water splashing in your face as you extend your muscles to push water down while bouncing up and down, your eyes gazing at the beautiful canyon of lush vegetation, heart pulsating and breath taken away. Man, it was my favorite thing up there. Great story (and lesson) too -

There’s five of us on the raft - Jenny (the beautiful one), myself, Dawn (the uber-experienced guide) and two other guys. On the oblong-shaped transport, the guide sits on the back-end tail while we four fill out two rows on the two columns of the sides. Each position is critical, each one chosen, each one necessary for the completion of our mission - to take the rapids at high speed and intensity, fun-gauge on high.

Dawn means experience in raftinglish. She’s done this stretch a thousand times, knows what to do, when to do it, and who needs to put their paddle where. After a short training session in how to obey her commands from the rear (i.e. “Forward Two!” which means paddle forward twice , and “Back Left One!” which means the people on the left side paddle backwards once) we set out on our wild ride. No, there was no Mr. Toad.

I enjoy the back left position, my wife to my right and the two guys sitting in front of each of us. Well, the front right guy says he has had alot of experience in rafting, had done canoe trips and other such activities earlier in his life, and was excited for this one. Ok - sounds great we guess, the more experience the better.

We set down the trek, the first set of rapids not too difficult entitled, “Entrance Exam”. We pass through it pretty smooth, but not as smooth as Dawn would’ve liked, as we seemed to veer to the right for some reason, but no worries, let’s set our course ahead for what’s next. We pass through a second set of rapids better, and now we are headed for “Tombstone” the third and most difficult set so far.

We grip our paddles, “steady up” as we are told by firmly securing our feet under an inward part of the raft, and prepare for the commands of the guide. It’s comforting to know that your guide knows exactly what to do, and that your ears are working good enough to hear and your brain good enough to send responding signals to your arms to execute the command she gives you.

So, you await the command, and you execute. Diligently await the command, and execute! The brilliance of execution is exhilarating, especially when a team does it together, in complete unity and unison, watching the raft leap over and through the crashing rapids, a soft hum in the rear accompanying success. But this time, there was no hum, there was no unity, and there definitely wasn’t unison.

As soon as we hit the rapids, the guide yells “Forward Two!”, and we each do exactly that, except for the top right guy. He does forward two, three, four, five, and just keeps paddling - doing at least four more paddles than the rest of the boat - without a command to do so!

Before we can blink, our raft goes careening into a large rock, the top right guy goes flying over the side, smacks his head into the rock (praise God for the bright yellow helmets!), and our raft almost flips over, not on the x-axis, but the y! Clearly in trouble, the guide yells, “Side right! Side right!” which means, everybody on the raft leap to the right side to keep the boat from flipping over and knocking us all out! As much as we can in the midst of the rapids, we jump on the other side, barely saving ourselves from going topsy-turvy altogether.

But the front right guy is still under the water. He’s under the raft. Should we dive in and get him? Fish swimming all around his head, alas, he appears in the water about 25 seconds after he went under, and the other team’s raft (who already had more people) hauls him in. Thank the Lord, he’s fine.

As soon as he rejoins the team, the much younger guide gives him some serious instructions - “What were you doing?! Because you were rowing when I didn’t ask you to, and while everyone else stopped as they were commanded, you rowed us right into the rock, not only smacking your own head, but risking the imminent danger of everyone else in the boat!”

A bit embarrassed, the guy had no problem obeying orders after that lesson, but we had to ask him - why did you keep rowing and doing your own thing? He had thought, because he saw the rock coming, that he should forget the command of the guide and row to try to get away from the rock himself, thinking his experience and intuition would help the team avoid disaster, but in doing so led everyone smack into it!

He forgot that he wasn’t the guide, he wasn’t the leader, he wasn’t the one who could see the end from the beginning nor the one who knew exactly the steps necessary for success. By taking things into His own hands, not submitting to the wise, kind, and just guide, He crashed into the very thing he thought that by his own strength he could avoid.

Thankfully, he nor anyone else was hurt, but a great lesson was learned -