You ever watch a child run into traffic?

Last month, Traci and I, and our three amazing kids, were on our West Coast road trip from Michigan. During six weeks of travel, we logged 10,860 miles and countless hours of fun with friends and family. It was a great trip to rest, recruit supporters for Overboard Ministries and to prepare our hearts for the work God has for us here in Michigan. A week after my oldest niece’s wedding, we spent 7 days with my brother Dan (it was his daughter’s wedding) and his two youngest children. It was a fantastic week for all of us. The hundred degree weather made his pool perfect for daily swims and time with his family was a real treat.

Dan’s youngest -- my nephew Steven -- is a great young man, today. 20 years old, he loves the Lord, and loves adventure in life. He’s a lot of fun to be around, and my son AJ especially enjoys hanging out with him.

One sunny afternoon while watching him play games with my kids in the pool, I took a little stroll down memory lane. I have a lot of memories of Baboochka (that of course, is his preferred name!), and one in particular that still makes my heart race when I think about it.

Steven was probably just three or four years old, and all of us took an afternoon to visit Bush Park in Salem, Oregon. We were walking along Mission street (a particularly busy street) preparing to enter the park, when Steven, suddenly and rather inexplicably, bolted toward Mission street. It was moment of sheer terror for everyone as he scooted between two parked cars and prepared to emerge on a street with vehicles traveling 35-45 mph.

My brother’s parental instincts kicked in, and he jumped down a little embankment and bounded between two cars to catch Steve as he was a step away from entering into a lane of traffic. Honestly, a second or two later, and that might have been the last memory our family would have had of Steven. My brother saved his son’s life.

Watching Steven jump in the pool as a 20-year-old man, I’m thankful for my brother’s quick thinking, and his decision to grab Steve’s hand and yank him to safety. There was no debate, there was no, “Steven, you get back up here right now, or you’re gonna get hit by car. Oh yeah, young man, when you get hit by a car doing 45, you’ll be sorry you didn’t listen to me!” No. He jumped into danger, grabbed his son’s hand and pulled him back to safety.

I’m thinking about that story again today, as I’ve been meditating on Isaiah 41:13: “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you’” (NIV). I like how The Message paraphrases it: “That’s Right. Because I, your God, have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go. I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic. I’m right here to help you.’”

I love that verse. God “takes hold of [my] right hand” -- He has a “firm grip on [me]” -- and He’s here to help. Like my brother jumping out to help his son avoid serious injury, God is taking hold of you and me, and notice that He’s not waiting for us to reach out to Him! My brother Dan didn’t wait for Steven to realize the gravity of his situation, and likewise, God isn’t waiting for you and I to come to our senses before He offers help. He initiates. He grabs our hand. He helps.

Of course, we can resist His help, we can reject His work in our lives, but thankfully, He still doesn’t give up and He doesn’t quit. Sure, He might up the ante, He might increase the pressure to help persuade us to trust Him, but He doesn’t give up helping us. He wants us to grow to be more and more like His Son, Jesus.

I’m thankful for God’s help. I’m thankful He keeps grabbing my hand and I’m thankful for His reminder that I don’t need to fear or panic; He’s here to help.

How can you surrender to God’s help today? How can you redirect your focus from fear of circumstances, to faith in a God who helps? From anxiety to peace? From fear of the unknown to trust in the One who knows everything?

He’s taking hold of you, and He wants to help.

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is always better on the water!

When you hit the wall

Last month I was working out in my friend’s gym, having one of those days. You know, the ones where every exercise seems painful and hard? Some days exercise is fun and energizing for me, but other days it feels like the weights are extra heavy, the treadmill is extra fast and my whole body just lacks the umph it needs to keep going.  

As I finished my first set of reps (I usually do five activities two or three times, then do a different set of five activities, two or three times, for a total of ten activities in a regular workout), I thought, “Ok, today I’m only going to get through 2 reps” and I felt a little energy boost knowing that I was already half way done.

I stood up on the gym floor, faced the mirror to do a set of dumbbell curls, and that’s when I noticed the verse my friend had stenciled on the wall opposite the mirror: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” It’s from Isaiah 40 and the whole passage reads like this:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young me stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31).

As I reflected on the passage from Isaiah 40, that line really struck me: “...will renew their strength.”

When I think back to my youth, I can think of just a few times when I was one of the “young men” who “stumble and fall...” In fact, I can vividly remember a time when my youthful energy totally betrayed me and I had nothing left to give.

I played basketball my freshman year of high school, and we played for a tough, but very good basketball coach. Coach Miller had a very important philosophy about practice and it was very simple: “We are always going to accomplish something. And if we can’t accomplish anything else, we will get better conditioned.” That was code for running our butts off.

One particular torturous conditioning drill was called a mop-up. When doing a mop-up, you took your practice jersey off and placed it on the floor. You then grabbed it with your hands and ran a basic line drill. There were only three rules: The jersey had to stay on the ground. Your hands had to keep in constant contact with the jersey. And you could never sit down.

One mop-up was painful, but doable. Two mop-ups was excruciating, and required breaking through a pain threshold most of us had never approached. But the day we screwed up in a basketball game so badly that coach gave us three mop-ups, I found muscle groups in my body that I used that day, that have never been exercised before or since!

Coach walked in with a stack of papers and said, “Well boys, you know what we have today. So all we’re doing is three mop-ups, and when you’ve done your three, you can go home.” Then he sat down and started grading papers he was behind on. The fastest of us took the better part of an hour; our slowest teammate took almost two.

There was a point in which my legs burned so badly! I honestly have never hurt that much in my life, and that was after I had completed two full mop-ups, with on full one left to do. I kept praying that coach would just tell us to stop, but he didn’t. I knew that if I stood up I wouldn’t be playing in next week’s games. I pressed on through the pain and after about 75 minutes, I had completed my third mop-up. I waited in the gym until our whole team had finished then we hobbled to the showers together and committed to never, EVER, play in such a way as to need a mop-up as torture. If I remember right, we didn’t do a single mop-up the rest of the year.

I hate hitting walls. I always wish my walls were further from the starting line, but it seems like any time I get going on a new project, new workout plan, new eating goals or a better morning routine...SMACK! I run right into some personal, internal opposition. And all-too-often, the wall wins.

When living the Overboard Life, we are bound to hit some walls. That’s when the words of Isaiah 40 have to be embraced. We have to hold on to the truth that God will provide strength when we have only pain and weakness. He will give energy when we are weary and exhausted. He will restore power when we are faint and feel out of control. He will move our standing to walking and our walking to running. He will always give us what we need to get through the next wall.

Have you recently hit a wall? Are you staring at one right now, exhausted, weary and feeling defeated? Have you smacked your head one too many times, and certain that you’ll never get through, over, under or around?

Then you’re in Isaiah 40 country. You need to remember that God doesn’t grow weary and He is always working on behalf of His children. “Since God is for us” wrote the Apostle Paul, “who can stand against us?” And the answer is “No One!” Will you lean on Him again today as you face your wall?

14 down, 26 to go!

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is better on the water!