Row, Row, Row Your Boat

There was a rowing competition on Sunday. All the members of the rowing club were practicing hard. The break of dawn on Sunday saw all the contestants lined up in their boats. They were to row a distance of two kilometres. As luck would have it, the morning breeze was very strong.

The whistle blew and instantaneously, all the contestants started rowing. Some moved their oars long and slow, others short and rapid. Each of them tried to move faster than the rest. About half way through, Pragun broke an oar. It snapped into two and became absolutely useless. God Lord, what should he do? Pragun tried to wave his arms frantically to catch someone’s attention, but nobody seemed to have time to notice him.

He started rowing with the one oar he had left with him. Strangely the boat started moving around in a circle. It just moved round and round with the oar as its central point! There was no way he could move it towards the finishing point. After struggling for a few minutes, he just gave up. He left the oar and sat back. He decided to quit rowing. The boat bobbed up and down; this way and that way. The wind and the waves had a good time pushing the boat hither and thither. It was totally directionless.

Think about it this way, one oar is in God’s hand, the other is in our own. If we row our boat in communion with God’s command, the sailing is smooth. If we break away from God’s hand, and try to become the master of our lives, life goes round in circles. Progress is just not possible.

If you let go of God’s will and stop thinking even for yourself, your life will have no direction. The world will push you up and down and all around, according to its own whims and fancies!