Canoe faith

Years ago, I heard a story from a traveling guy.

He had an unfortunate pompadour – a look favored by Christian leaders at the time. His hair made me want to stop listening to his words. It was pretentious and distracting.

His words, however, were kind and un-fluffed.

This traveling story wriggled into my distracted, cynical brain. The man spoke about "canoe faith" and "launching out into the deep."

He related a trip he had taken into the Colombian Amazon basin. He had sat low in a dugout canoe in the piranha infested flow swelled by rains. His companions were indigenous men from a community rumored to be comfortable with cannibalism. 

Despite the very real threats, this journeying man was confident in an unseen God. He was confident that he was where he needed to be despite the danger, fear, and rumors.

He said that his God had already shown up in providing safe passage, a dugout canoe, and guides who knew the way.

Dangers on every side.
Storms.
A foreigner.
Missing his family.
Flesh eaters in the churned up waters that surrounded him.
Fear of failure.
Fear of fear.

He related how even in this knowing that he was on a good solid path, he realized that anything could happen.  He was comforted that his God saw "success and failure" far differently from how he naturally saw it.

How before he even stepped into the wobbling canoe, he felt that God had assured him that He would be with him.

All he had to do is launch out into the deep and love the folks he met.

Not change them.
Not destroy their culture or ridicule their lifestyles.
Just love them.

So he got into that boat that started a journey that took him around the world to bind broken hearts and set captives free.

Canoe faith: what we have when all we have is danger on every side and a call to love.

Launch out into the deep friends.

You don't paddle this thing alone.

image of artwork provided by the artist, suzy sue smith, gainesville, georgia, folk artist
check her artwork out at https://www.facebook.com/suzysue.smith?fref=ts