I went white water rafting the other day. I can’t swim. Actually only in salt water can I stay afloat if I doggy paddle like a madman. I suspect that would give me a long 30 sec of quality floating time. As I think about it, this has happened only once, a forced doggy paddle out to visit the sting rays in the Cayman Islands years ago. In fresh water I drop like a stone. Naturally doing anything in or near water freaks me out a bit. It’s one of my fears. The Chilliwack River “canyon run” is full of class 3 and 4 bad mother swells with a nice mix of big boulders that create some fun water holes. At least the boulders look big from the surface level. We went hard on the river. We got stuck several times in tight spots. One time we had to quickly go to one side of the raft to prevent the raft from flipping completely over. I was pretty much standing up at a ninety degree angle while the raft was stuck on its side. We pulled through in the end, no one fell in, and we beat the river once again. Thinking of my past white water experiences, it’s a bit of risk for me to do this adventurous thing. I would lie to you if I said I wasn’t nervous. Despite this natural nervousness and sense of fear, I faced it square on. A calculated risk with fear. I conquered that day. I felt like a king afterwards. I wonder if I faced life with the same reckless abandon, or at least took some more risks, what would that look like? If I could go hard and take risks in my everyday situations? How about if I could really take risks in my relationship with Jesus and REALLY seek Him and go hard? I wonder what would really happen in my life if I took more risks. And then realize that my fears are just as thin as rice paper – and not the big ugly monster I thought it originally was. Would my life look different? If I can face my fear of water, can I not face all those other ugly fears? Something to strive towards.