Hello ,

Palmer Chinchen writes the following:

My brothers and I had traveled to the western edge of Zimbabwe to raft the Zambezi River. We boarded our raft at the base of the Victoria Falls. Massive amounts of water spilled over the top of the giant falls and dropped almost a thousand feet; the roar was deafening. The falls are the largest in the world, more than a mile wide and three hundred feet high. Mist from the spray that fills the air like fog can be seen for fifty miles; the locals call it "Smoke That Thunders." The water from the falls rushes down the gorge in torrents, creating the world's largest rapids. In the United States, the highest-class rapid you are allowed to raft is a Class 5. The Zambezi's whitewater rapids can top 7 and 8 ....

As I sat on the edge of the eight-person raft, all suited up in a tight, overstuffed jacket and a thick crash helmet, I felt like an overcautious tourist about to mount an overpowered moped in Honolulu or rent roller-blades on Huntington Beach. The Zambezi can't be that dangerous, can it?

But then our guide [said], "When the raft flips ..." There was no "If the raft flips" or "Or on the off chance we get flipped." But "When the raft flips." He went on, "... stay in the rough water. You will be tempted to swim toward the stagnate water at the edge of the banks. Don't do it. Because it is in the stagnate water that the crocs wait for you. They are large and hungry. Even when the raft flips, stay in the rough water."

Stagnancy will kill your spirit .... God needs us out there in the rough waters, pouring our lives into people .... *

This journey in life's "rough water" can often feel like we're not going to make it...but if God is in life's rough water with us, we can know that we are totally in His loving care. There can be no safer place,  than to be with Him.

Have a great day and God bless,

Pastor Mike / The Open Word 

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