I recently took some teens & adults canoeing.  I was a little nervous, being that my last river outing was in a raft going down the river that the Olympic Games were held.  It was a little intense.  This trip was a calm, quiet ride down in Urbana.  We had a great time.  As we were paddling/floating along, I got to thinking about some life lessons that could come from this trip.  Over the next few weeks, I want to share some of my observations with you.  Hang on, it could get bumpy!

#1 – Teamwork is Important

#2 – Don’t Rush

Not sure that I should admit this, but I probably should…I am not a perfect youth pastor.  Whew, that feels better.  Now you know the truth.

On this recent canoe trip, we took 14 canoes down the river.  About 30 minutes into our 1.5 hour trip, there was a small drop off (like 6 inches).  The canoe place warned us about it and said just go slow & straight and you will be fine.  So we took our time as to not run over other canoes.  Right after this drop off was a nice place to stop for a bit.  So we did…kind of.

After we got everyone over to the side (we had spread out a little), we realized that there were 3 canoes missing.  They didn’t stop after the falls, but kept on going (don’t fire me just yet there was with an adult with them – we had several spread out the group).  I figured they weren’t very far ahead of us.  So my teammate and I jumped in our canoe and hurried off to catch up to them.  It took us 30 minutes of hustling (not rushed, but going faster than we would have preferred).  We finally caught them and they were doing fine, having a good time.  They wondered where the other 10 canoes were, but hadn’t stopped to figure it out. We stopped at the side, although not a great place to stop; as I had to hold the canoes from drifting off.  We waited for the others to show up; then we finished up (which wasn’t far off).

The lesson…don’t rush through life.  When we started the canoe trip, we were having a lot of fun (despite being splashed & dumped – more on that later).  When we were hurrying to catch the others, we didn’t have as much fun.  We were on an important mission, but were all alone…and felt some pressure.

• I encourage you to not be so busy that you don’t enjoy the stage of life you are in right now. It may not be perfect; but there are some good times. Cherish those moments.
• Find others to go through life with: a small group; family; neighbors; friends; church. The Bible talks about being made for relationships. Who are you connected to? My fear for those who went on ahead was mostly around ‘what if they need help?’ they weren’t all alone, but there is something about being with others. ‘If one falls down…who can help him up?’ as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.