Counterintuitive

A few weeks ago when we went whitewater rafting on the Urumbamba River in Peru, we went through the obligatory orientation prior to entering the water. Standing on dry land, the guide told us about rowing motions, the orders the guide might give, and the importance of obeying instructions immediately without trying to figure out the reason for the instruction. Standing firmly on the ground, I half-listened, much the same way as the way I listen to the flight attendant tell me about in the unlikely event of a water landing blah, blah, blah.

Moving water has a lot of power. A knee-deep current can sweep you off your feet if you aren't paying attention, and the power of a river is relentless. No one can turn it off and allow you to reset. The unfortunate fact is that the exceptional safety record of rafting companies gives the impression that what we are doing is not really dangerous, when in fact, any river can kill in the right circumstances.

One of the most important rules of rafting in whitewater is also one of the most counterintuitive. If your raft comes broadside against a boulder, the rule is for everyone to converge on the side against the boulder. The normal way of thinking would be that if we want to get away from the boulder, get on the side of the raft away from the boulder, but that thought will turn your raft over and spill you out into the fast moving icy current. By concentrating all of the weight of the passengers near the obstacle, the current will catch the lighter side and gently sweep the raft around the boulder. If you lean away from the obstacle, the water will pour into the raft and cause it to flip. So hugging the rock gets you away from the rock. Avoiding the rock puts you in the drink.

Sometimes serving the Lord is counterintuitive. We see an obstacle or challenge in our lives and our natural inclination is to move as far away from it as possible. Many times, however, God wants us to move toward the challenge and to allow Him to sweep us around it. When we insist on trying out our own efforts and ideas first, it just makes it more difficult for us, and can cause us to have many unecessary scary swims.