Ragdoll

I have always enjoyed a good lake day and I love any sport behind a boat. Wakeboarding, water skiing, kneeboarding, and wake surfing all demand a certain amount of skill and a good driver to pull you. Tubing is considered as one of those things that you can do with little practice but there is an art to it as well, especially if you don’t want to get hurt.

With tubing you need a good driver who will make long turns from left to right, swinging you and your tube along the way.  As you come across from one side to the other you gain the most speed as you cross the boat’s wake.  You usually will “pop” over the first wake and then kind of drop off the second.  Then you slow down as the boat turns in the opposite direction.  For a moment, as long as the water is not super choppy, you can relax your grip, adjust, and prepare for your next crossing.

You learn the timing fairly quickly and can get into a rhythm.  Still, no matter how “skilled” you get, eventually there will be that big choppy water.  The driver will say “watch this” and you will hit it hard, at speed, and be forced to release your grip.  

At that point, when you know you’ve lost control and you’ve let go, you’ll get hurt if you get tense.  The trick is to relax every muscle in your body and just go with those forces beyond your control.  That “rag-doll” time is a true “go with the flow” moment, where avoiding injury depends on your ability to relax.  

““No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!”” ‭‭John‬ ‭13:8-9‬ ‭CEB‬‬

Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet.  Often, we too respond to God’s call with a firm “nope” if it doesn’t line up with our own agenda.  When Peter realizes that it is actually God’s will—it’s not optional—his response is to fully invest.

What God is doing right now isn’t beyond us, but it is beyond our control. Our option is our participation. When life gets “choppy” and unpredictable we have to remember this: Don’t “tense up” in resistance…and instead lean into what God is doing. Life is best lived when you go with the God-flow.