Spring is such a glorious time of the year. All of outdoors awakens to shake off its winter attire. Green, grassy splotches emerge, cheery birds chat among themselves, and southerly breezes tease of warmer weather to come.

Once the river ice melts and the runoff slows, we unhook our canoe from the rafters for a long-awaited springtime ritual, canoeing the Thunder Bay River. We have a lengthy canoeing history with one another. Vital lessons of team work, balance and reading the water conditions were learned early on with our heavy, unsinkable fiberglass. Later, we graduated to the fine craftsmanship of a Jay Baker canvas canoe and spent many hours exploring Michigan’s waterways, honing our paddling skills. Finally, we built a lightweight cedar strip. It’s become our favorite, fast and sleek.

A spring river with high water and a ruthless current requires strength, endurance and good judgment. First, we paddle upstream against the rushing, tumbling water — a battle of wills, ours against the determined Thunder Bay watershed. Constant effort is required, or the river’s strength will conquer ours and sweep us back downstream.

We prefer the less-traveled natural river branches frequented by deer, muskrat and water fowl. Here, the water’s course is like a maze, with deadfalls often blocking passage and requiring portaging, or hidden stumps that offer a potential flip into the icy waters. If one of us slacks off on paddling or fails to rightly judge the next move, we will be swept sideways as the river takes control.

Eventually, we work our way around a bend to discover an impassible snag of trunks and debris spanning the churning river. This is our signal to turn back and travel downstream.

Ah, the ease of floating with the current! The water takes control, doing most of the work. Now, our role is simply to steer and guide. So swift is the flow that turtles drowsily sunning themselves have no time to slip into the dark waters as we pass by.

So many spiritual truths parallel our paddling adventures.

We can passively drift and be swept along in life, or we can plan our course. Wise words from the Apostle Paul come to mind: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:2)

Like a powerful, unrelenting current, our culture’s values will sweep us along, unless we live purposefully. It is so easy to conform and mindlessly float.

Unless we choose the course we wish to travel and make determined effort to follow it, we will be aimlessly tossed to and fro.

I absolutely need my husband’s strength, wisdom and skill in the stern of our canoe. I cannot navigate the river alone. So, too, as we navigate the choppy waters of life, we absolutely need God in our life to oversee and guide the journey, or we will shipwreck.

The Apostle Paul charges us to “fix our attention on God.” God has plans and purposes for each one of us, a hope and a future, all found in Jesus. His Word, the Bible, is filled with truth and wisdom. It is truly like a rudder for our lives, giving us guidance, keeping us on course, and preventing us from capsizing.

Have you invited Him in and given Him the helm?