I didn't mean for it to happen. I wasn't trying to go that way. I didn't even realize it was possible. Nevertheless, I looked up and realized that I was a long way from where I started.
Sara and I were on top of a tandem open water kayak in the Chesapeake Bay on a steamy August morning. We had been paddling happily for about 30 minutes and fatigue was setting in. Our muscles weren't used the motions. We were ready to turn back. But when we tried to spot the spot from which we had rented and launched our little craft, we couldn't make it out. Finally, I thought I recognized a flag on the beach way, way behind us. My first thought was disbelief. There was no way we could have paddled so far in such a short time. Then it hit me - we were in the ocean. The ocean has currents. We had been paddling with the current, so we traveled much further than we would have without a current. I also realized that to get back to where we started would likely take twice as long going against the current. I looked down at my SpongeBob Squarepants arms and thought, there's only one way this is going to happen. "Sara" I called out, "How are your arms holding up?" She has always, since birth I think, been much stronger than me. I knew we were going to need that muscle of hers to make it back.
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At this point in the story, you may be wondering why we didn't just make a beeline for the nearest point on the shore. If so, you haven't met my wife. If the guy says, "when you're done, land the kayak right here", and points to a spot where ocean meets Virginia, then that's exactly what she is going to do. A rule follower all the way.
Needless to say, after an hour of tortuous labor (more on Sara's part than mine as I was sitting behind her and could take little breaks without interrupting her focus), we made it back to the beginning. And we've never been kayaking since.
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Isn't that how it happens? You didn't mean to end up where you did. You weren't trying to go that direction. You just got caught up in the currents of life, doing your daily thing. Then one day, you looked up and realized you had drifted far away from God.
This has happened to me a few times. The major driftage occurred between ages 16 and 20. I literally woke up one morning in an apartment in Union City, GA that I was sharing with my sister. I was between colleges, sort of, and working two jobs. The realization struck me like a frying pan to the face. I was far from God. And I knew that I didn't want to be. I didn't want to live one more day drifting aimlessly from one job to the next, one girlfriend to the next, trying to weave thin strands of hope and peace out of the tattered shreds of my faith. I couldn't do it any more.
What did I do?
What can you do when you find you have drifted far from God?
The answer is simple and clear and hard by degrees. And I'll include it in my message on Sunday at Colonial Point Christian Church. Or you can read the dynamic story of a man who found his way back to God in 2 Samuel 11-12 and Psalm 51.
Feel free to tune in live, or later, to http://http//www.colonialpoint.com/media/messages-live/ at 10 a.m. Sundays.
