Your Life - White Water Or Calm Waters?

It's time to live differently. Take a look at this story that illustrates the point perfectly.

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 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 over 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 white-water rapids can top 7 and 8. Here's what I read later about white-water classes: "Completion of a Class 6 rapid without serious injury or death is widely considered to be a matter of luck or extreme skill." Great.

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

But then our guide caused me to begin questioning my logic. His first words were, "When the raft flips..." There was no "If the raft flips," 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 stagnant water at the edge of the banks. Don't do it. Because it is in the stagnant 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. The Christian who is not being used by God to change lives, to make a difference for Christ, will dry up, stagnate. Transformation will not happen.

Are you restless? Is your routine boring you mad? Do you sense that you should be doing more with your life than you are today? For most, I am almost certain the answer is yes. The Bible tells us that God put this dissatisfaction with a stagnant life in your heart.

God has a hard time working change in a life that is not going anywhere.

To finish the Zambezi story, the very first rapid we hit violently twisted our raft, folded it in half, and shot it into the air to land upside down. You bet I stayed in the rough water. After we pulled everyone back on board, our faithful guide started heading for the banks with other rafts in our group. "Why are you stopping?" I asked.

"This is the chicken run; we stop here and let the chickens out to run." He was right - eighty dollars was not enough to keep about a dozen tourists from the other rafts in the white water risking their lives.

Many believers sense this restless heart but do nothing about it, usually because of fear. Fear is the cord Satan uses to bind our hands and hearts, keeping us self-justified in spiritual stagnancy.

The missional church of tomorrow will be global in it's purpose and function - not afraid to stop feeding its own church machine in order to change a broken world. Not afraid to get out of the boat to do things locally and globally that make its people uncomfortable.

My brothers and I stayed in the raft that day. Our raft must have flipped four more times. We were tossed like rag dolls and left in the river to battle the crocodiles. But we stayed in the white water. Yes, there were moments when I thought I would die, but I wouldn't trade that Zambezi thrill ride for anything.

The church of tomorrow must resist stagnancy. God needs us out there in the rough waters, pouring our lives into people.

We can't be still - we can't be silent anymore.

The life following after God is so much more exhilarating than many have allowed. Let's become like revolutionaries of the early church. God has an unparalleled adventure waiting for you. There's purpose, there's danger, there's transformation for all who step out.

Live that way. Live in the white water. Live where it's just a little bit uncertain and unsafe. Live where there is something thrilling just might change you forever.