Last hurrah before the hurricane winds and rain hit the Carolinas. The effects were already here. The Catawba river was fast and very high. I had my new "magic stick" installed on my bike to pull my kayak upstream. One man who saw me bike by begged me to let him videotape me. He said I would be famous on instagram.
I loved my new system. It was much easier to haul my kayak the three miles upstream to my launch site. I received lots of admiring remarks from the people I passed. You would think they had never seen someone haul a kayak behind a bicycle.
The river was definitely a challenge. However, I was not TERRIFIED. I was just scared. That was probably a good thing since it made me keep my life jacket on.
After making it successfully, gloriously back to the take-out point, I put the kayak in my car, and decided to walk the three miles back to my bike at the launch site. It was a glorious day and the scenery was spectacular.
Praise God for the beauty and delight of His world. For all of you going through the storm, not only Hurricane Irma but the mental, physical, and spiritual storms that inevitably come in life, may the beauty I photographed for this post remind you that the storms will pass and sometimes the storms even wash away things we cling to that impede our walk with God.
I discovered that to be true in my own devastating storms. It is painful to endure but in the end if you are left recognizing that you can lose everything EXCEPT God, and find peace in that, you will know a peace that can surpass understanding.
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Romans 8:18-23
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ...
John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Those looked like some serious rapids
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