Imagine you’re traveling across the desert with a tribe of Bedoin nomads. The loaded camels swaying back and forth as you slowly make your way east. The gentle rocking and the warm sun make you drowzy and you drift off to sleep. You awake and see a welcoming oasis and you stop for water. After a few days of rest you load back up and return to your journey.
It’s easy to imagine our journey through life like this. And while it may have once been the reality, today it’s not like that at all. Let me paint a different picture for you.
You are in a raft traveling a swift moving river. Your back bends as your oars plow deep in the dark green water. Your eyes scan the foaming surface of the water on the look out for dangerous rocks and other submerged debris. When the water appears more calm you decide to pull your oars up out of the water and drift for a bit.
Your focus on the water dims and you are distracted by movement of other things. You lay back and look up and watch the clouds and begin to daydream. But before you know it your raft has snagged on a submerged rock and you are dangerously close to tipping over. How did danger appear so quickly?
Our lives today are much more like the rushing river than the trudge across the desert. And when you pull the oars up out of the water, the world doesn’t just stop. The world continues at a breakneck pace and if your oars are up you have no way to steer or to control your course. You can easily drift into danger.
In this example “oars up” doesn’t refer to rest. Periodic rest is critically important. Probably more important than we realize.”Oars up” refers to disengaging, losing focus, burying your head in the sand and ignoring what’s going on around you, even giving up. The power of the drift is a dangerous thing.
We are 39 days into the new year. 39 days since you put your raft in the water and began the journey down this river. How are you doing on the goals and plans you made for 2013? When the year began you had high hopes for change. This year was going to be different!
How are you doing? Still engaged? Still focused? Or have you pulled the oars up and decided to drift a while?
There are rocks ahead. Get your oars back in the water.
Hmm…one day we will have the opportunity to discuss this over coffee at Ann’s barn! I am not sure that I read taking our oars out of the water as drift if it involves flowing down the right rapids. In fact, it was taking my oars out of the water that was instrumental in my life becoming more and more what it was/is meant to be.
Joan! I completely agree that we often need to take the time for rest, reflection and meditation. In fact, disengaging the left side of the brain to dream, explore, etc. is critical. I think another word for drift might be “float.” When we just float along trying to take things as they come we often shift into a more defensive position in life. Our outlook can even shift into a victimized position where we believe that Life happens to us instead of us being more assertive and making needed change. The cool thing is (to continue the metaphor) I truly believe that God does bring about those times of quiet waters where the danger is distant and our minds can be still and we can hear his voice and relish his presence. That’s when the oars come up and our eyes go skyward.
As much as I believe there are times to take our oars out of the water and trust that God is able to guide us in the right direction and be the One in control, I hear what you’re saying, Mike, for the purpose of not losing focus on the dreams God has put in our hearts and not bury the talents He’s placed in us. Keep pursuing! It takes effort on our part to see the “art” God has put in us come to fruition. I believe we begin the journey and allow God to steer, but there’s no vessel to steer until we take the step to begin.