007

Water-skiing

From “In the Midst of Thee – volume 1,” a collection of 97 Glenn Rawson stories, available at: .

Recently I had an experience that powerfully reinforced a principle for me, which is that one cannot truly appreciate the joy of conquering something unless he has painfully failed a few times.

Well, I was invited by some friends to go water-skiing. Now, I have never water-skied in my life, and what’s more, I can’t even swim. When I get in water over my head, my panic button goes bonkers – I float like a rock. So, I don’t know whether it was male ego or a fit of foolishness, but I agreed to go.

Well, when it came my turn, I was given some brief instructions. Bobbing like a cork, I finally managed to strap those ungainly boards on my feet that for some reason were always trying to get above my head. When I was finally set, I signaled for Wade to hit it. Oh – oh, and he did! I think I drank half the lake before I finally let go of that silly rope.

Well, I rounded up the skis to try again, and this time I made it up on the skis, but I couldn’t keep a steady pressure on the towrope. Wade accelerated to take up the slack when suddenly my ski tips caught. The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air superman style hanging onto that rope. Oh, when I finally hit the water at 30 miles-an-hour, I had no idea something so soft as water could hurt so much!

I was ready to say, “That’s it! That’s enough! I’m too old for this much fun.” But, when I could finally breathe again, my dad’s words from childhood came to me, ‘When you get bucked off, boy, you get back on!’

Well, it was with some trepidation that I put those boards back on my feet. As I sat there poised to hit it again, I – I found myself saying, “Heavenly Father, I have to do this. Please help me!”

Well, Wade gunned the boat, and I popped right up, and to my joy this time I stayed up. And you know, it was fun! I made a couple of passes around the like until I was comfortable, and then once more I crashed rather ingloriously when I tried crossing the wake. But I had gotten up, and little by little as the day went on, my skill and my confidence increased until the last time I skied I was glad to finally crash. I had been up so long and skied so many times around the lake, I was too tired to hang on anymore.

Well, now the point: Whether it’s water-skiing or overcoming the natural man, the principle is the same. We learn to rise above this murky mortal lake of wickedness we live in by painfully crashing into it a few times. Those crashes hurt, but they are necessary, and they are expected. How else can we learn? But I promise you, if we will grit our teeth, pray hard, and try again, we will rise above it until someday we will by the grace of God become skilled enough to stay above it.

Oh, and – and one more thing: I assure you, no matter how humiliating and embarrassing the wreck, God always comes back for you.

Glenn Rawson – August 1998

Music: Mountains, track 10 (edited) – Lex de Azevedo

Song: Born a Winner – Julie de Azevedo