The Bungee Cord. 1-6-25

Hello,

Happy New Year! 2025! If you ask a bunch of Christians how they perceive that God will be at work in their lives in the year to come, you will get a variety of answers. I have heard some say that God will be orchestrating their future in such a way that everything will happen under God’s purpose. Big things like hurricanes and tornados, and little things like finding a parking spot on a snowy day. At the other end of the spectrum, there are Christians who will listening for God’s encouragement each day, cheering them on like a thrilled parent.

Truth to be told, who knows for certain.

Neither end of the spectrum of answers matches my daily encounter with God, nor my understanding of the picture the Bible paints of God’s presence in my life. As I sit here at my computer on this cold and snowy winter’s day, I find myself drawn to an analogy of God’s working in 2025, and every year actually, that takes me back to my freshman year in high school: water skiing!

We had friends that owned a boat that they kept in a medium sized lake in Indiana, Lake Maxinkuckee. The summer before my freshman year, they invited my family to come with them to the lake to water ski. I was thrilled. I had never water skied before, and the thought of skimming across the lake, kicking up rooster tails of water, was thrilling.

There were two things that I discovered on the first day of our water-skiing adventure. First, the lake was cold! Really cold! It was spring fed, and so no matter the air temperature, the lake stayed cold. Second, water skiing is not as easy as it looks. Getting the skis on as you bob up and down in the water takes some coordination, and getting up on the skis takes strength and balance.

So, as instructed, when it came my turn to give it a go, I jumped into the cold water and my teeth began to chatter. I squirmed around in the water and got my feet in the holders on the skis. I grabbed ahold of the handle of the rope and watched the rope straighten out, and when it was taught, I yelled, “Hit it motorboat man!” (That was the command that our friends had learned from some “real Indiana” folks.)

The boat lurched forward and with its jerk, I found myself going head over heels over my skis and gulping a mouthful of water. “You gotta stay leaning back,” I was instructed as the boat circled around me bringing the rope to my hands. When it reached me, I grabbed the rope again and shouted, “Hit it motorboat man!” Several times, with the same splashing result. But eventually, upon my command of “Hit it motorboat man!”, I managed to keep my balance and battle the force of the water against my skis, and I came up out of the water gliding on my skis….tentatively gliding. As time and the years went on, I became much more adept at water skiing, being able to come up out of the water on one ski without much problem and sending rooster tails into the air as I made cuts across the wake.

It was great fun, so much fun that I looked forward to our skiing adventure every summer. Since it was not our boat, we would only go when our friends invited us. That meant that we skied no matter what the weather might have been. Rain, cold, windy, sunny…we were out there, and sometimes were the only ones out there, water skiing.

So, what does this have to do with God’s working presence in my life? Well, I might describe my life as one long water-skiing adventure, skiing every day no matter the conditions of the lake, and I see God the one at the helm of the boat in whose hands is the power to lift me up out of the water and pull me along the surface. Sometimes the water is full of white caps, but that doesn’t stop God from pulling me through. Sometimes the water is calm, and those days are a delight to ski through. Sometimes I can go for days, skimming along in life. But other times, I lose my balance, and fall. And when I fall it never fails that I discover God circling the boat around me to pull me up again.

Of course, every analogy has its flaws, and in this case the flaw might come in asking, “What if one doesn’t have the strength or balance to come out of the water when pulled?” To that observation I find myself saying, “Well, that is something that God will find a way to overcome.”

So, as you and I find ourselves looking ahead into a new year, I invite you to imagine with me that we are afloat in Lake Maxinkuckee, skis attached to our feet, hands holding on to the handle of the rope, and shouting with me to the one at the throttle of the boat, “Hit it motorboat man!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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