16 Lift Up Your Rudder!

As a boy growing up in Northern California, I had many opportunties to play in the streams that came out of the mountains. Sometimes they were raging torrents and at other times they were slow moving, friendly waters, where young boys could find many fun activities to pass away the hot days of summer.

Sometimes we played on rafts and pushed ourselves around using long sticks or poles that were plentiful along the banks of the river. Once in awhile we were fortunate to find a boat with oars. When using the boat, we learned a great lesson. At the time it seemed relatively insignificant. However, in my later life, it became clear what great truth mother nature was trying to teach us.

In every lake or stream there seemed to be any number of rocks, branches, twigs, sandbars and sometimes just plain junk, lurking under the water, just waiting to interfer with our progress. We learned that we could bring our raft or boat to a stop or slow it down dramatically by dragging our poles or oars along the bottom of the waterway. Several times while in boats with motors, we got hung up or tangled in something beneath the water. We had to learn to pull the motor up at the right time. This also happened when our rudders were too deep in the water. Sometimes this caused severe damage to the motor or to the rudder of the boat. It didn't take long for us to learn that to have an enjoyable ride across a shallow lake or down a peaceful stream, we couldn't go along with our poles or oars or our rudders too deep in the water.

If we did, they would inevitably drag on the bottom or hit every big rock or branch that was sticking up from the bottom; and our smooth, pleasant ride down the beautiful stream was interrupted by jerking, swirling and annoying disruptions.

At first we became very upset about our bumpy ride. Then we finally learned to not put our oars, or our rudder or our poles or motor too deep in the water.

LESSON LEARNED

As I have gotten older in life, I have come to the conclusion that life is like floating down a beautiful stream. The boat is like our own personal life; our personality, our character, our feelings, emotions, attitudes, etc. We are traveling down a stream that is taking us through a beautiful world with trees, bushes, flowers and animal life all along the way.

Instead of enjoying the ride, many of us stick our rudders or our feelings, too deep in the water. As we do this, we are upset by every little rock or twig of circumstance that comes our way and we do not enjoy the ride. We are always upset by something. There are certainly things to be aware of in this life and some of them we need to handle before moving on. However, I have observed that many of us are reacting far too much about every little thing that happens in our lives because our rudders are too deep in the water. As a result we spend too much of our lives upset and missing what really counts in this wonderful world. So, my friend, pull up your rudder a little and enjoy all you can while you are still in the stream of life. You will be much happier and so will those who are in the boat with you.