Learnings from an (eventful) trip down the river

I love having students here with us for numerous reasons, and one kind of selfish reason is because I get to do exciting activities with them because, well, they always need a "guide" to go with them.  Generally if I am available, I am down to go on their excursions with them, and a canopy zip line and white water rafting adventure sounded like a fun Saturday plan.  I have been zip lining here in Costa Rica more times than I can count (such a hard job I have!) and also been white water rafting a few times as well.  I also thought that for that reason, me being an "experienced" zip liner and rafting adventurer, I could also be a good person to go along and accompany the "newbies" that had never been.  The white water adventure, however, turned out to be more eventful than I would have wanted when I found myself having to quite literally swim for my life after being unexpectedly tossed out of the boat.  Before I get too dramatic in my storytelling, here are some pics of our adventures yesterday: (Thanks, Tori and Evelyn, for the great pics!)

All ready to hit the river

6 of our semester students and their fearless guide

Ready to zip through the canopy

The ziplining adventure went without an issue and everyone had a great time flying through the trees.  We feasted on build your own nachos that were especially delicious because of how hungry we were, and then it was time to go rafting.  As mentioned earlier, I have been rafting twice already here in Costa Rica and once in California, and my last CR experience we faced some Class 4 rapids.  Because of this, and it being dry season here, I really wasn't concerned about it being difficult or dangerous.  I was in the raft with my SI staff friend Jana, her three friends visiting from Europe, semester student Tori, and our guide.  The guide was the same guide I had two years ago when I went rafting with the same company on the same river, so that was fun to be repeating that experience with him.  Right away when we took off down the river, we were faced with a pretty big rapid, and there were a lot of screams and nervous shouts from my fellow rafters.  I could tell that a few of them were concerned about our safety and not so sure about participating in this adventure, but like it or not, we were on the river.  

I honestly can't remember what happened next, but before I knew it, I found myself launched out of the front of the raft, bouncing along down the river and every second getting further away from the boat.  I tried to grab the rope that was around the raft, but the river was too strong and pulled me away before I could get a good grip.  Worse than the shock of being tossed out or the temperature of the water was the fact that my life jacket seemed to almost be weighing me down and I was struggling to breathe without taking in a lot of water.  Soon I realized that two other ladies had been thrown out too, and we made eye contact to assure that we were "okay."  I tried to think back to what our guide JJ had told us about which direction my feet were supposed to face, but the water kept spinning me around and I felt really disorientated.  Next thing I knew, the "rescue" bag and rope was thrown out to me, and I took a hold of it and felt myself being pulled in towards the boat.  When I got close, JJ leaned over and with great force, pulled me in by my life jacket and I felt a relief rush over me.  My heart was beating SO fast and I felt really emotional about the reality of what had just happened.  While I was in the water, I felt so helpless and confused, and also fearful that they might not be able to catch up to me to rescue me.  The other two girls were also pulled back into the boat, and then we somehow made it over to the shore  to take a breather and regroup.  (Now I know that people get thrown out of the raft all the time when doing this, but it had never happened to me or anyone in my raft, and the fear and helplessness that I felt at that moment was quite real.)  Our boat was pretty shaken up, and the three of us who had been in the water were ready to call it quits and not finish the adventure.  But that wasn't an option; we had to continue.  

I was reflecting on that experience on the way home and this morning as well.  (Obviously we finished our rafting journey and ended up having a great time- no more incidents.  When asked if we wanted to jump out and take a swim in the calmer waters downstream, JJ was responded to with a resounding "NO" from our boat.)  So many songs have been written about rivers and their movements, and I unintentionally chose "Rivers In the Wasteland" by Needtobreathe to listen to on the trip home back from day trip.  (Sidenote- they are an AMAZING band and I would encourage you to check out this song here at this link: More Heart, Less Attack).  But isn't life truly like a trip down a river?  We are all in the raft, we are floating along and may even feel confident and comfortable out there because of our life experiences, maturity, knowledge, etc.  But sometimes there are things that come along unexpectedly and sometimes quite literally throw us out of the boat and into the churning waters.  We might feel like we are drowning, we might panic because we don't know what to do in that moment, we might lose focus on the One who can save us and bring us back to where we are supposed to be.  But He isn't going to give up on us, He won't leave us in the water to drown if we are seeking Him and wanting to be saved.  He sometimes uses other people to bring us back to Him, sometimes He miraculously intervenes Himself.  And sometimes, after being rescued, we may feel shaken up, not wanting to put ourselves out there again, to try something that seems a bit risky.  But oh what we would miss out on if we threw in the paddle and gave up on participating in the journey.

I apologize for being more long winded than usual in this post, but there are times where I feel like the Lord has spoken to me in a specific way and I am to share my learnings and journey with others.  Does the image of life with God as a trip down a river resonate with anyone else?  (I have to say that my friend Ashley and I have talked about this idea before, and so I may subconsciously be borrowing from her a bit here in this post. :) ) I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Thanks to Him for being the ultimate Guide on this adventure called life; I am so thankful.