Push

Saturday was Will’s first time whitewater rafting at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. His mother was worried about it. When we finished, I asked him what he thought.

“It was too short. Can we do it again?”

And that was it. He was hooked. We did 4 trips over the weekend. I’m so proud of him.

On one of the trips we just came out of the Screaming Turtle down a Class 3 rapid and about half the people in the boat fell out, including me. As I was falling out, I saw Will, who was sitting in front of me, start falling out too. I reached up as I was going down and gave him a strong push upwards. As I french fried down the river and then was recovered to my raft, I learned that Will never touched the water. My push allowed him to grab a hold of the PFD (life jacket)of the man in front of him and he was pulled back into the safety of the boat. Will’s mother, his sisters, his friends, his aunts and uncles, no one else was around to give him that push he needed. No one else could give him that push. He couldn’t push himself.

It came from his father.

As Christians, we all often get a push that only our Heavenly Father can give us. Maybe it’s the push we need to forgive someone; the push to let go of bitterness; the push to mend a broken relationship; the push to overcome an addiction; the push to forgive ourselves; the push to begin again.

The Father gives us the push we need. Without it we are man overboard without a PFD doing a pizza down the Class 5’s of life trying not to romance the stone.