Rainy Season

Fortunately, before the rain that has been ever present returned, I was able to dash out and kayak yesterday afternoon. The river was enormously high. The trees along the bank were all partially submerged. Many, with their rain soaked roots had keeled over completely into the water, their leaves still green, twigs still sticking up like fingers grasping for help as they drowned. Some trunks leaned over precariously, and I stayed away from the bank when I drew near to them. I figured at any moment they could lose their fight with gravity and I didn't want to be the object that softened their blow as they came down. They were toppled all along the bank, huge root-balls ripped from their soil anchor and raised like giant wheels of mud and shoots, the trunk attached to them broken and shattered across the ground.

With the deluge and volume of water lately, the river was very fast. I headed upstream against the current. When I would pause to take a sip of water, my kayak would be swept swiftly back downstream. I decided not to drink any water till I was ready to head back downstream and home. It took me fifty minutes to get as far upstream as my arms could manage, but only half that time to race back downstream to the dock.

This is normally a period of drought for Charlotte. By July most years, lawns are charred remains, water is sometimes rationed, and rivers run dry. Not this year.  For whatever reason, the season is not what it usually is, and kayaking is not on a lazy low river where the current is almost imperceptible. It is hard work out there kayaking right now, and I almost decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Until I turned around and the current carried me as though I were on a motor boat!

Then I was very glad that I had not given up! The banks with their fallen trees zoomed by. I took that long awaited drink of water, and lay my paddle across my lap, watching the effortless flight of the osprey above me while the powerful arms of the river carried me safely and swiftly back to my dock.

Great effort and great struggle often precede great reward. God reminds me of that time and again. Do not grow weary in the upstream battles - seasons change, and the currents you fought going out might be preparing you for the currents you will ride going home.

Galatians 6:9

English Standard Version (ESV)

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.