You Can’t Paddle With a Stiff Neck

Paddling a canoe with a friend takes effort and cooperation as there is potential for frustration. My daughter, Sam, sometimes leads canoe excursions at our state park. She says that, most of the time, two paddlers in one canoe inevitably sit in the wrong spots. If one paddler normally likes to be in control, she would do well to sit in the back. That same person must communicate when she switches sides with the paddle so the person in front can also switch to the opposite side. I may be paddling contentedly on the left side when my partner yells, “On the right!” My stubbornness can kick in if I don’t want to be told what to do. So much for a leisurely ride on the lake!

Someone has to lead in a canoe. In order to make it work, the person sitting in the front must  listen and allow the person behind him to call the shots: paddle as directed even when it doesn’t make sense. I do better in the front of a canoe. Though I find I am sometimes  inside my own head or I try to paddle independently, closed off to my friend’s voice. The Prophet Jeremiah calls this being stiff-necked. We refuse to turn because we are determined to go in a certain direction. To turn, thereby changing course, requires some humility and the ability to admit we are wrong. Unless we can do this on a regular basis, we will simply go in circles. There is an old quote: “Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe.” Except we forget that, in life, we’re never in the canoe alone. 

Can I let another person lead? Can I turn around and admit I need help? The old saying is wrong. We don’t have to paddle our own canoe. We simply need to communicate and listen well, consider other possibilities, change our course and cooperate so we can reach the destination together. Whether it's a friend, partner, spouse, God in our canoe, might we consider paddling on a different side?