• Avoiding The Rocks

  Contributed by Tim Smith on Mar 17, 2011 (message contributor)

    (rate this sermon illustration)

   | 1,943 views

  Scripture:  None

  Tags:  Discipleship

  Denomination: Methodist

AVOIDING THE ROCKS

Alan was my prayer partner at a previous church and he tells the story of going white water rafting on a Christian retreat. He said he always got stuck being the captain of the boat and sure enough for the 4th year in a row, he was named captain. So his job was to direct the men in the boat to paddle away from the rocks which lay in their path. The problem was that he was so focused on the task, he never really got to enjoy the ride.

This year, he had a huge man in the back of the boat who was 6'8" and 275 pounds. When he rowed, the boat really moved. But the problem was that instead of rowing, he kept looking up at the mountains and every 5 minutes or so would cry out: "O man, this view makes this trip worth it. I've never seen anything so beautiful!" So Alan would look up and see the most awesome view in the world, a scene he had not noticed, until this man changed his view.

And then he said, "Isn't that the way we often are in our lives? We get so caught up trying to avoid the rocks in the rapids that we fail to be sensitive to what God has done for us."