To Japan On An Inner-tube
November 1996
I don't know about you, but there are times when I feel that things seem plainly out of control. Like the time I got caught in an ocean tide. But, before we get to that, let me tell you about me and swimming.
On land, gravity keeps my legs under me. In water, my legs float, which might be OK if they could kick. But even self-floating legs would be all right if my arms could pull my weight through water, which they can't. I just don't have the right combination of working muscles to be able to swim. I can hang onto an inner-tube, though, as tenaciously as a barnacle to the Santa Maria. That ability came in handy once during my missionary career in Indonesia.
I had flown from my home in the mountainous interior of Irian Jaya to have a short vacation on the north coast. While there, one especially hot day, some like-minded friends and I went to the beach to swim. I got into the Pacific on my trusty inner-tube. Boy, did it feel good! .
The waves were wonderful... until I noticed they were getting more boisterous and I was farther from the shore than I should be. I tried stroking. Sure - my arms vs. the Pacific?! Shore was getting farther and farther away as I headed for Japan. I wondered how long it would take me to get there. Then I noticed, about a mile off shore, a line of Indonesian fishing boats. The whole-family-lives-on-them-all-the-time kind. Not pictures of reassurance, but there was a chance one of them would notice me floating by and pull me into their boat. I could visualize my potential rescuers heading into shore with me-and-my-inner-tube, asking swimmers, "We found this out there. Does it belong to you?"
By the time my friends saw my plight, I was past the coral. Frank tried to swim out to rescue me, but he got caught in the current, rolled around and cut up quite badly on the coral. I'd have to take my chances with the fishing boats.
Then my direction changed. I was in some kind of huge whirlpool that was taking me towards shore again. But now the tide was lower, barely covering the coral. My destination had changed from Japan to the bottom of the coral reef, still clutching the remnants of a sure-to-be-tattered inner-tube. It was time to get serious.
As each wave surged me forward, I pushed up on the coral with my hands to skim the inner-tube over the top. First one, then another, then another.... I made it back across the coral and to shore with barely a scratch -- not even on my trailing legs. Their talent for floating served them well that time. My relieved friends pulled me out of the water, and I sat sheepishly on the sand, feeling badly for poor Frank who was lying lacerated and exhausted on the beach.
Actually, that's not the only time life seemed to be taking me to Japan on an inner-tube. And I expect I'll again find myself in a situation that seems out of control, propelling me in a direction I don't want to go. As before, friends may be helpless to come to the rescue.
God didn't send a helicopter to pluck me out of the water, either. Instead, he gave me the presence of mind and creativity to use the power of the very waves that could have spelled my doom, to lift me up and over the coral away from harm.
So it has been with all of life's waves, because, as the Biblical Jacob told his son, "The eternal God is your [my] refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." (Deuteronomy 33:27) Under God's control, the waves are meant for good. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) I need to keep my head and use the opportunities God has wrapped in the waves.
