What's In the Boat. . .

We went kayaking this morning and I enjoyed watching the water flow in and out of my boat. You see, our boats are sit-on-top, self-bailing kayaks. (I'll just go ahead and give the plug here, they are Wilderness Rippers. Mine is red and Glen's is green.)


There are several scupper holes in the bottom of the kayak which allow water to continuously drain into the river. With a constant flow of water in and out of the boat, you sit in about two inches of water all the time.


The thing that is important about this is that whatever water you paddle through is the water which will be inside your boat -- and thus the water you will be sitting in. Today we had to paddle through some water that had a disgusting green foam on it. The only way around it would have involved much more paddling than I wanted to do at that point, so I went straight through it. Of course, in a minute or two, there was green foam between my feet.

Once you have water, or in this case green foam, in your boat you don't like, it takes several minutes of paddling in nice, clear water to clean out the inside of the boat. It doesn't just go away instantaneously. And sometimes there is a residue left behind of whatever was floating on the water.

Life is like that, too. Whatever we immerse ourselves in, gets inside of us. We may not think it becomes a part of us, but it does. Eventually we will become like what we have surrounded ourselves with, like a piece of meat takes on the flavor of a marinade.


Where are we putting ourselves? What type of water are we floating in? Is it something that we want in our heart and mind? Is it a flavor that is becoming to a child of God? Is it glorifying to the Lord Jesus?

We would be wise to be the guardians of our hearts and minds, careful to not let things in there that would necessitate cleansing.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me."

Psalms 51:10