Humility

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I booked in to do a twilight kayak on the Sounds.  I had heard about kayaking, in fact one of my friends raved about it.  So, why not give it a go. Surely it wasn’t that hard.

There we were at twilight, a group of 10, adults and children, novices like myself and more experienced folk going out with our guide for a twilight kayak on the Queen Charlotte Sounds.  I was partnered with a young tourist and took the back seat of the tandem kayak – the seat that also had the pedals that controlled the rudder.  Shouldn’t be that hard right?  A few instructions and tips on holding the paddle, of the arm strokes, and about steering and away we went.  So far so good.  Not bad until the Picton ferry moved passed us and the wake from the boat pushed my companion and I into the shore.  With a bit of effort we managed to sort ourselves out and carry on. Seriously, I was making a hash of the whole thing and the magic had rapidly begun to fade. My companion had less of an idea than me on how to use the paddle.   The rest had to wait for us to catch up -  more than once. The guide rearranged us and swapped out my tourist for a young teen. It didn’t help.  When we finally turned around to head back to the base kayaking and I were not on good terms. I was tired. I couldn’t get the stroke right and we were making little progress.  Our guide pulled up beside us and without a word clipped the front of our boat to his tow line. Suddenly, I was doing really well at this kayak thing!!! He towed us back to base with my help. 

Humility and meekness – my deeply “spiritual” questions from earlier in the day as I read Matthew 11:28-30, rose up to greet me!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Certainly I was deeply “humbled” by the experience. My strength and ability were definitely not up to the task. I was embarrassed and slunk away, but as I pondered that passage and the experience – Jesus said take my yoke – Just as the guide quietly came along side, so too does Jesus – he adds his strength, his wisdom his ability, his power to our small efforts – grace kicks in and takes us further.  That’s true humility, recognising that we cannot do life by ourselves – we need Jesus.  His grace is sufficient for us.  When we yoke in with Jesus he does the “heavy work”.

There have been many times since that experience when my lesson in humility and meekness come to mind – when I am faced with a task that is beyond me, Jesus comes in with the tow rope. When I think I am the super hero and done amazingly well, a friend tells me that they have been praying for me and I realise that my Helper had come alongside and quietly added his strength to mine and we had actually done it together. I humbly bow my head and say thank you.

If the guide hadn’t helped bring us home that day, I would still have been paddling in the dark – I really needed the help and was so grateful for it even if my pride was dented!!

 

 


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