Let Go of The Rope
I’ll never forget my first time water skiing.
I was 22 at the time and really hadn’t grown up with opportunities to be at the lake very much. My soon-to-be wife, had spent many of her teen summers on the lake and was a good skier.
We were out on the lake with some of her lake friends one Saturday afternoon. I was just happy to be along for the ride, enjoying the beautiful day and riding in the safety of the boat watching other people ski. But when her friends discovered that I had never been on water skis before, then instantly everyone tried to get me to try it.
I was fairly athletic, having grown up playing traditional sports, and I thought to myself, “How hard could it be?” I would soon find out.
Actually, it wasn’t that hard to get up on the skis. After one or two tries, I got the hang of it and would pop right up almost every time.
But I found that there’s an art to staying up. There’s this sweet spot where you distribute your weight just so. You have to lean back just a little and find that right balance.
Needless to say, I never found that balance - either I would lean back too far and wipe out on my backside or I would try to over correct and face plant on the water.
Having played sports all through the years, my competitive instincts started kicking in and I was determined to get it right. Over and over I would try and I would stay up maybe a minute or two and then the balance would start to go and then, “Wham!”
I’m pretty sure I drank half of Carters Lake that day but I was not giving up!
Finally, I was like, “Come on, Ryan, you’ve got this!” In my last run of the day, I popped up immediately, found my balance, and then proudly glided across the surface of the water. “Look at me go,” I thought to myself. It was easily my longest run of the day. I thought to myself, “I’ve got this figured out.” And then the wobbles came back. I was leaning back, and forth, trying to regain my balance, but to no avail. I couldn’t get it back, and I crashed face-first into the water. But there was one slight difference this time. I was still holding on to the rope! I could hear the people on the boat yelling but couldn’t quite make it out. LET GO….glug, glug, glug…ROPE…LET…glug, glug…OF THE…glug, glug.
I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was so determined not to fail, I wouldn’t let go of the rope. And there I was, careening face-first across the water.
Finally, I figured out what they were saying. LET GO OF THE ROPE! After swallowing a good portion of the lake, I finally swallowed my pride and let go of the rope.
From time to time, that image comes to mind, because it reminds me of an overarching theme of my life. I can be so determined to do things on my own, so prideful in my own ability, that I would rather be drug across the water than let go of the rope. I’ll expend so much energy white-knuckling it through life, trying to figure it out on my own. Why? Because letting go of the rope is an admission that I need help, that I can’t do it alone.
But the funny thing is that God never set it up for us to do it alone. He created us in His own image but He created us to need Him. Over and over in scripture, He gently reminds us to LET GO OF THE ROPE.
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
James 4:10 adds, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 says,”Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you.”
It was true over 2,000 years ago when these words were written and it’s still true today.
Human nature has not changed and we still need Him now as much as ever.
I’ve had to learn that lesson the hard way time and time again. God gives us free will to make our own decisions and the consequences can be quite painful. I’ll be sharing some of my story along the way. Hopefully, you can learn from some of my mistakes.
The biggest thing I have learned about God is that He loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you there. And He will allow painful circumstances to come into your life to get your attention. As C.S. Lewis said, “Pain is God’s megaphone.”
God has a plan and a purpose for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “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.” But He doesn’t intend for you to do it alone. We tend to think of ourselves as the star of the show, and one of the reasons we want to do it in our own strength is that we want the glory. But the truth is that God is the star of the show and He wants to use us - our gifts, our strengths, our weaknesses and failures - to work through us in such a way that He will receive the glory and honor. God wants to do exceedingly more in you than you can ever do on your own so that when people look at what He has done, they’ll know two things: 1) there is a God; 2) He is worthy to be followed.
And you and I can be part of that miraculous plan, but there’s one thing that we must first do.
Let go of the rope. Let go and let God.