Me and My Red Canoe
I attend and lead Silent Retreats at a very
special Retreat Center in East Texas called Kaleo
Lodge. From the very first Silent Retreat I ever attended
there, I was the only one in our group who took out a canoe in
my time with God. The experience in the canoe brought me great
spiritual lessons and very special memories of being silent and
still with God. Every year after, I always made sure that I had
time in my red canoe, and although each journey was different,
they always left me with inspiration and companionship.
There have only been two times (out of about 12 experiences there) that I did
not take out the red canoe. The first was the year that the lake was drained
and it was impossible to take it out. Instead I walked around the places I had
once canoed and that was very delightful. The other time was a year that I went
there completely exhausted and carrying a heavy burden of grief that I did not
realize I had. That year I did little but sleep and cry and stay near the fire
and my bedroom.
I tell you all that to explain about my experience this past spring with my red
canoe. When I arrived I noticed the canoe in the landing area, almost waiting
for me to come and take my ride. I was busy the first afternoon getting things
ready, so I didn’t have time to walk down to the lake for more inspection.
The next morning I noticed it was not in the landing area and assumed that someone
was out in it. The day was cold and I couldn’t get warm, so I had decided
that this would be the third time that I attended a retreat at Kaleo Lodge and
did not go out in my canoe. Instead I went down to the dock to sit in the sun
and read. When I did, I noticed that the red canoe wasn’t being used by
anyone, but that it had floated loose and was drifting up against the reeds that
guarded the shore. There were two paddles in the canoe and I had the thought
that I could rescue the canoe if I were brave enough to walk through those reeds.
I quickly rejected this plan as I was sure to get wet in the process and I was
already so cold. I decided I would tell the workers the state of the canoe and
leave it to them to find a way to restore it to the shore.
As I sat, I heard the Lord call out to me to be the rescuer of the canoe in thanksgiving
to all the ways the workers were serving me, not to add something else to their
list of things to do. I set out to rescue the red canoe that had given me so
many spiritual lessons in the past, thinking of it as an assignment to help others.
God gave me another plan: take the other canoe and tie it up and bring it in
that way. This plan worked great, and when I got up to the canoe, I realized
that it was half-way full of water, so my earlier plan would not have worked.
I tied the red canoe to mine and drug it to land. I took the canoe I used to
rescue my red canoe up against the tree and set back to pull in the red one.
I couldn’t budge it because the water weighed it down too much. I knew
I had to bail the water out before my assignment was complete. I got a pail and
started bailing. After 20 gallons (I was counting) I looked back and couldn’t
see that I had made any progress. I was so discouraged, but I kept on bailing.
I knew progress had been made even if I could not see it. It took about 30 gallons
until I could see that there was truly less water than before. The canoe was
still too heavy, so I bailed until it was almost gone and the canoe was light
enough for me to pull onto shore and turn over on its side. The bailing was so
much easier once I knew for sure that I was making a difference and I probably
took out more than necessary to make the move. God had many more unique and special
lessons to teach me on my red canoe. The most important lesson of all: God’s
ways are always higher than my ways. Romans 11:33-36 is a fitting scripture to
end this retelling of my experience.
(33) Oh, the depth of the riches of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
(34) "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been
his counselor?"
(35) "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay
him?"
(36) For from him and through him and to him are all things. To
him be the glory forever! Amen.
I love and celebrate the ways God surprises
me with spiritual insights and blessings in unsearchable and
beyond tracing out ways!
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