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Canoe


           Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:14-16)

          Many years ago, my parents decided to let me try handling their canoe solo. I took “Dad’s seat” and started rowing, and to all our dismay, discovered physics. I couldn’t get the canoe to go in the direction I wanted, and it didn’t matter which side of the canoe I paddled on. The difficulty didn’t last for long. I found that I could control direction astern and got back to shore. The problem, of course, is that I sat in the back, and there was no weight in front. That raised the bow enough to allow the breeze and the river current to control my direction.
            When we are immature Christians, no matter what our physical age; when we have not been equipped or educated in what God says, it’s easy to get blown off course by this idea or that. One of the ways to keep from being blown away off course is to always keep the weight in your life equalized between truth and love. This isn’t done by getting rid of part of either. We need 100% love and 100% truth  
           The only way for us to grow, to progress, is to have both and exercise both. With both ends of your canoe/life weighed down properly, you can move forward. And not only that, but because we’re able to control our craft better, we are less of a threat to all the other canoes/lives that are traveling on this river called “Life.” We can even move things together that we could not move by ourselves.

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