Why not paddle your little canoe right into the raging storm with confident expectation, friend? (And may your arms grow stronger with each paddle you row.)

I was sitting on the seashore, enjoying a snack, and watching the storm. The storm was the new life challenge that had thrust itself upon us, like waves of trouble from a Tsunami. I dried off because the storm’s splashes had already reached me, and then backed up, further up the shoreline, to regroup.

What do we do next?

Join people in fifty-eight countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)

I spoke on the phone with a friend later that week, and she reminded me, “The front cover of the book that you have already purchased has the name of all three of those diagnoses your child has just been told she has, you know.”

“Did it?” I ran to get the book.

Several years earlier, when this same friend told me about this book, there was a nudge, a whisper from God.

Buy the book.

It was a book about a radical way of eating (i.e., NOT two-thirds of kid’s diets as highly processed food, which is the “normal” way children eat in our culture – I’m good at knowing about that!). This diet and regimen to cut out everyday toxins from modern life (which is a thing, too – there’s even science on this, but more on that later) was helping some kids.

But our kids were fine, or so we thought at the time.

And yet, that gentle nudge to buy the book.

I did buy the book and then sat down with my bowl of chips and hot chocolate to read about intense diet changes, to kale and beef liver and chicken broth that seemed to heal some kid’s guts, and THEN ALSO THEIR LEARNING DISABILITIES.

“Sounds like a nice idea,” I thought. I tried a few recipes half-heartedly, adding extra sugar out of habit. “Too much work,” I thought, abandoning the book soon after, and returning to our regular Froot Loops and ice cream diet.

But this friend, in my moment of desperation, kindly pointed out that the book’s title seemed to offer hope to some children with learning disabilities.

And so, what did I have to lose?

Try it, Holy Spirit seemed to nudge to the longings in my own heart, despite my protests that if I was going to eat this way too (at least in front of my children), I COULDN’T give up my multiple treat breaks EVERY DAY!

And so here I was at a fork in the road on my path of life.

Would I follow where it seemed God was perhaps leading us?

Or would I continue my own path, with the blaring fire alarm bells of multiple appointments to visit with autism and learning disability experts screaming at us over and over until this child leaves home? Would I sail full steam ahead into the storm of this recent challenge and spend my time covering my daughter with my arms, trying to hold on to her to help her not fall out of the lifesaving boat? It seemed she could fall into the sea if I sent her to various “experts” so I could continue life as usual.

The prognoses of experts weren’t very hopeful.

Would I set sail in my own canoe, my daughter and I veering off in a slightly different direction from most others in our situation, one that offered hope that the stormy seas would become a bit less violent and that eventually she could learn to paddle this boat herself, to soar into her own journey of increased independence as an adult, reaching more of her potential?

I looked at my skinny arms that didn’t have much strength to paddle very far. “Well, I guess I’ll get a bit stronger as I row,” I thought, my daughter too unwell to do any oaring yet, herself. I had only this book, as the night star to guide me. Would we reach calm seas someday, or would we perish in the effort?

It was time to find out.

We pushed the canoe out, and my daughter and I began our healing journey together.

And she was healed, told, for example, years later, among other things, that she “no longer meets the criteria for a learning disability.”

But that part comes later. Oh, and I was healed too, but I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story.

And so, what is the best way to face the storms and challenges we encounter in our lives?

1. We find people who have arrived at the destination we want to go.
2. We follow them.
3. If this means turning aside from “expert” advice, advice that seems to lead to a place we don’t want to end up (we’ll talk about that next time), so be it.
4. Bonus! Extra Tip! – (We follow Jesus when it seems He is walking just ahead of us, nudging us onto a narrower path.)

Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do . . . These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.

The Message

As the song below sings, “What’s the plan ‘cause I have no clue what to do with these hands,” what do you long to ask God about the recent storm in your life? Where does your heart sense Him leading you? Will you follow?

(And I will pray for your own transformation, too, as you endure the weather you encounter while travelling the seas of life.)

Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!

Photo Credits: Sailing Into This Boat’s Stormy Sea by Art Institute of Chicago on Unsplash, What Weather Will There Be After The Storm? by Mauro Gigli on Unsplash, and Why Not Soar? by Giuseppe Gurrieri on Unsplash