Thoughts On A Given Day

I was born in Bryson City, North Carolina, a small town in western North Carolina, though I never actually lived there for very long. My father was in the Air Force throughout my childhood, and I was raised on, or in the vicinity of, various Air Force bases. But I have always had a close association with and affinity for Bryson City. Throughout my life I have visited family and friends there on a regular basis, and it was there I learned to love the outdoors. Western North Carolina is blessed with outdoor attractions. There’s the Smoky Mountain National Park, which has Deep Creek on the outskirts of Bryson City, a small river flowing out of the mountains with ice cold water that is great for tubing and fishing. My family has loved that river for generations. Deep Creek flows into the Tukasegee River, which flows right through the middle of Bryson City, and is great for fishing and float trips. There’s also the Cherokee Indian reservation with many outdoor attractions of its own, and there’s the Nantahala National Forest, which has the Nantahala Gorge, which in turn has the Nantahala River flowing through it. When I was younger the Nantahala River was known primarily as a place to fly fish. More recently it has become a very popular destination for white water rafting and kayaking. My family loves to go white water rafting, and we have rafted the Nantahala for as long as it has been available there.

I consider the Nantahala River a fairly safe river with low level rapids, and rafting can be enjoyed there by the young and inexperienced rafter quite safely. It does have some rapids that can be considered dangerous if approached inappropriately, but in general it’s safe. I do have some family members who won’t set foot back in it after having experienced what they consider a near-death experience, but I still enjoy it, and every year there is at least one raft full of my family members who will spend a morning or afternoon rafting down that river.

Anytime someone goes white water rafting, there are certain things to watch out for. There are three types of rocks, in particular, that you need to keep an eye out for and avoid if possible. These are the pillow rock, the broach rock, and the undercut rock. The pillow rock lies just under the water level, and you quite often don’t see it until you’re almost upon it. This is the kind of rock you can get the raft stuck on, and then, of course, you have to get yourself unstuck, hopefully without tipping over. The broach rock is one that you can see sticking up out of the water as you approach it, and, of course, you hope to avoid slamming into it. As you approach the broach rock you can notice water slapping into the front of it, “pillowing”, and eddying around the sides and back. It can be a hazard if you hit it with a raft, because you could tip over, but most of the time you can see it coming and avoid it. Finally, there’s the undercut rock. This is a different varmint altogether.

This past Sunday, in my Life group (if you are unfamiliar with that term, it is modern Churchspeak for Sunday School class) one of my teachers used the undercut rock as an example of something to avoid in life. Since I love rafting, I got the point immediately, and I thought I might share it. The undercut rock looks a lot like a broach rock. It sticks up out of the water and is plainly visible. As you get closer to it you will notice, though, that the water is not pillowing up in front of it or eddying around the sides. That is because the water is going underneath the rock. Over time the force of the water has undercut the rock to the extent that it flows right underneath it. Unfortunately the opening is usually larger on the upstream side of the rock than it is on the downstream side. This makes for an extremely dangerous situation. If someone gets pulled into the undertow of an undercut rock it can be almost impossible to get out, and drowning is a very real possibility. So, obviously, when rafting, we try to keep an eye out for undercut rocks and avoid them. Shifting to the other side of the river comes to mind.

We need to watch out for the undercut rocks in our daily lives as well. It is so easy in our current society to fall into traps from which we cannot easily escape. Illegal drugs, alcohol abuse, pornography, marital infidelity – these are just a few examples that come all too readily to mind, but the list goes on and on of traps that are so easy for people to get into, but which are so difficult to escape from. Christians are by no means exempt from any of these. All too often we hear about the fall of some spiritual leader who started out with good intentions of serving God, only to fall prey to the undercut rock, easy to get into and extremely difficult to emerge from safely. It would take far more time and space than I have available here to comment appropriately about how to escape from any of these perils once we are truly caught up in them, but let me just say that with God anything is possible. The undercut rocks are out there waiting to ensnare any of us, and, in my opinion, they are best avoided, but don’t trust in your own power and ability. Satan can pull us in so easily, but God has defeated Satan, and with God’s help, we can too.

 

Ephesians 6:10-13

New International Version (NIV)

 

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.