Stay Calm

A few weeks ago, I ventured beyond my comfort zone. After some encouragement from my Supervisor, I decided to try rowing, although water and I are like A and Z. Stay Calm is the first part of the takeaway lessons from this experience.

As it was my first time on a canoe, you should know I was terrified. Extremely terrified of falling into the water, I didn’t take my phone along just in case. You can only imagine how bad I felt, once I settled in. No way to take amazing pictures for you.

With rowing, some form of balance needs to be created with the sitting positions. As a result, I sat to the right, in the middle of the canoe.

Since we’re discussing the basics of rowing, it’s worthy to note that how each person rows can affect the balance of the canoe. One little mistake can turn the boat in. Okay, I’m overemphasizing but you get the point.

After the first 5 minutes on the water, you can imagine that I was getting comfortable. There’s no way to leave, so I might as well get comfy. This is where the first lesson began.

Big speed boats going at a high speed have the capacity to create ripple effect on the water. If you’re a beginner like me, you probably didn’t know that. So we’re rubbing off on each other. For the small boats, this means a big problem, why?

Imagine rowing on a calm water body, and in a twinkle of an eye, your smooth rhythm is disturbed. You may be scared but you need to stay calm.

Depending on how close you were to the big boat, there may be a difference to the ripple you experience. As a result, you need to position yourself accordingly.

The same principle works for when storms come in life. Stay Calm. Position yourself in a way that your boat is aligned with the direction of the wave. Don’t try to move or adjust your initial sitting position on the boat. If you do, you may fall into the water.

In Luke 8:22-24, you can see Jesus and his disciples on a boat, when a storm comes. At first, they were calm and Jesus was asleep. But, when the boat began to fill with water, they woke Jesus up. On seeing the storm, Jesus rebuked the wind, and the calm was restored.

All through the initial time of the boat filling with water, Jesus was calm and asleep. You know, the storm may look like it will toss you aside, but stay calm. You have Jesus on your boat, and He’s going nowhere.

Certainly there will be storms in your life, but the key is to stay calm.

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