Elements

Last week we decided to take some of the kids kayaking. The 5 staff you see here were all comfortable with this...the kids? Eh...only one had ever done something like this before. We had them watch a safety video ahead of time, had the people at the rental site give some basic instruction, staff gave some basic instruction, and them we helped them load up in double kayaks while staff went out in singles. What was supposed to be a tranquil, 2 hour tour turned into 3+ hours of frayed nerves, wet kids, wet staff, and short tempers.

Maybe we (staff) took for granted the simplicity of it=to go right, paddle off the left side...to stop going forward, paddle backwards on both sides...No, those are logs, not alligators. Turtles won't hurt you. If you see a downed tree, go around it. Don't lean over the side. Yes, those are bugs and they will buzz around your head but they won't hurt you. Yes, you will get wet, so PLEASE leave your cell phones, MP3s, money, etc. in the van.

Maybe the kids thought it would be easy...

How hard can it be? Floating device, paddle, go! Uh, not so much.

Some of them just gave up, crossed their arms, and refused to do anything for a while. They kept crashing into things, getting stuck...We had to rescue kids every 5-10 minutes from tree branches, flooded kayaks, shallow water, etc.

Some more than 5-6 times...

I pondered this later...They were out of their element...They were apprehensive, even afraid (Is that an alligator!? What's in this water!? How deep is it?) so of course they were all over the place.

I asked myself, what environments/elements are these kids used to that I would be kind of edgy about being in?  And it humbled me a bit...Jail, the back of a police car, the "hood", the drug-dealing corner store, a house where everyone is fighting all the time, at a party where people are using drugs, etc. But how sad is that? And so, of course we wanted to show them something different, something better...

What we intended to be a wonderful, life-changing, make-a-great-memory turned into a little less than chaos...but it taught me a lesson. God doesn't lead me out of my element too often, but when He does, it tends to unnerve me a bit...but just like we were trying to do with our kids, I can now (more clearly) see that He intends to help me grow, expand, get uncomfortable but then learn from it all. And maybe...my "element" isn't as "normal" as I think it to be? (as our kids tend to think of their elements as "normal", "That's just the way it is", etc) Hmmmm...