Several years ago, I was blessed to take a cruise that made a stop in the Cayman Islands. When our cruise ship first arrived, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the blue water. Since this was my first time there, I decided to soak up as much sun and fun while on the beach as possible. After spending an hour picking up seashells, I wanted to do something a little more adventurous.
I saw a couple looking like they were having a great time on a paddle boat that looked like an oversized big tire. The 14-year-old daughter of a fellow vacationer from the cruise ship agreed that it looked like fun. Her mother agreed that she could ride the paddle boat with me.
At first, it was fun. We marveled at how the boat seemed to “ride the waves” and waved at our friends at the shore while they took pictures of us. After about 20 minutes, we decided to head back to the shore. We paddled and steered right but the boat kept moving to the left. After we went in circles about 3 times, we started to get a little frustrated because our legs were getting tired.
We then thought that maybe the reason why we were going left was because I weighed more than her and we needed to switch sides on the boat to balance things out. We started to get worried when, even after we did this, the boat still veered left.
Not only were we going in circles, but we were also being pushed further away from the shore by each wave. It was strange but it seemed like the harder we tried to go right, the more the boat went left. At this point, I was panicked but tried not to let the young lady see. I just kept paddling harder to get us back to the shore.
“Mom…get help!” was what the 14-year-old yelled after 5 more minutes of going around in circles. I also wished I could yell for my mom but tried to remain calm as our friends on the shore finally realized that we were not just waving for fun…we really needed help. Silently, I prayed for God to do something!
It took the equipment rental associate the longest 5 minutes to rescue us. When he reached us and looked at the boat, he said that one of the paddle boat wheels was filling up with water because a plug came out. He also said that our paddling was making it worse.
When I thought about it later, I saw how this mirrored the words found in Romans 9: 16: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
I then began to see how this nerve-wracking experience reemphasized how sometimes the smallest things can change your course. However, instead of trying to fix things, it is best to respond with peaceful trust in God and not panicky control.
Oh…I also learned to stick to finding seashells while at the beach.
Shewanda Riley is a Dallas-based author of “Writing to the Beat of God’s Heart: A Book of Prayers for Writers.”