Are You Paddling in Futility?

One day in April, my son and I took our kayak and paddleboard out on a local lake. We paddled leisurely around the lake, going farther than we usually do. The wind was against us when it blew, and the occasional gusts made it difficult to paddle. As I stood on the paddleboard, my body caught the wind like a sail. At one point, I struggled to keep my board pointed in the right direction. I was paddling and paddling and not moving. Even when the wind wasn’t blowing, it seemed more difficult to paddle that day.

As we were paddling back to our starting point, I discovered the problem. The rudder-like fin on the back of the board was up, not in the water like it was supposed to be. I carefully maneuvered around on the board and pushed the fin down into the water. The difference made by having the fin in the water was amazing. Instead of fighting the water, I felt like I was slicing through it. The wind still made paddling somewhat difficult at times, but like a rudder on a boat, the fin gave me the guidance I needed.

Obviously, our God is much bigger than a tiny paddleboard fin, but in the same way I failed to put my paddleboard rudder in the water before setting off on the lake that day, we can fail to listen to the still, small voice with which he attempts to guide us. God can—and does—use grand gestures to get our attention, but most often he seems to approach us in the midst of ordinary circumstances. However, when we ignore God’s direction and stubbornly try to do it ourselves, it can be like paddling without a rudder. Why are we afraid to let God in? I think the main reason is our inherent need for control. We like to be in charge, and it can be difficult to have faith when we don’t know the outcome. We are not God. He has given us a part to play and a job to fulfill here on earth, but that does not include being God.

God is a big-picture God, and our human sight is limited. It’s okay when we doubt, stumble, and feel faithless. It is normal. It is human. We see in the Bible that even the disciples doubted, sought their own gain, and deserted Jesus during his final hours. However, when we struggle and doubt, we need to read these stories in the Bible—stories of great failures—and see how God redeemed them. Ultimately, our faith struggle needs to lead back to God. We need to be praying, studying, and listening. We need to be building our relationship with the Lord so we don’t end up paddling futilely.

That day on the lake, a huge gust of wind came along, and I paddled my hardest to get through it, but I couldn’t. I ended up just paddling so I could stay in one place and not be spun around. Life can feel that way sometimes, can’t it? We are just working at staying afloat, trying not to be spun around.

Faithfully following the Lord doesn’t mean all our problems are magically solved; however, it does mean we don’t have to fight so hard. We have someone who will fight the brunt of the battle. Exodus 4:14 says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (NIV). I love this verse. However, stay still doesn’t necessarily mean do nothing. Other translations of this verse interpret it as saying, “you must be quiet” (CSB), “you only have to be silent” (ESV), and “ye shall hold your peace” (KJV). In the Latin version of the Bible, the word used is tacebitis which means “you will be calm.”

In very casual terms, I think this verse is telling us to chill out; whatever we’re going through, God’s got it. The Lord wants us to be active participants in our own lives. He is there for us—leading, guiding, and fighting—but we have to keep paddling through it all. We need to be faithful workers for the Lord.

As I was contemplating the idea of letting go of the need to control and being quiet in order to hear the Lord, I happened upon a devotion in my She Reads Truth Bible. The title was “Jesus is King.” It discussed the desire to be the own boss of our own lives and how we are hesitant to recognize Jesus’s authority. But, as the writer pointed out, this is the better way to live. “When we bow to Jesus as our King,” she wrote, “we receive what we are most afraid of losing in the face of authority: freedom. Real freedom.” ¹

Even though the wind may buffet us around, let’s stop paddling futilely and be still, be quiet, be silent, hold our peace, be calm, and listen to the Lord.

¹Myers, Raechel, and Amanda Williams, eds. Holy Bible: She Reads Truth Bible. Nashville, Tennessee: Holman Bible Pub, 2017.

Dana Herndon is a writer, blogger, and middle school teacher. She and her husband live in Georgia with their three children. In addition to teaching and writing, Dana loves to read, paddle board, and sometimes run. She blogs about faith, family, and enjoying the everyday life at danaherndon.com.