When The Tide Turns

I got home last week after a wonderful 7-day trip to Canada.  We went to St. John, Newbrunswick, along the Bay of Fundy and saw the reversing rapids.  This is the point where the rapids flow inward from the sea up the bay, until they turn around several hours later and begin to flow outward.  I’d never heard of such a thing, but apparently, it has to do with the phases of the moon, which affect the tide.  (I’m not a scientist, but I’ll take their word for it.)

I realized that in some ways, our lives do the same thing.  Things flow along smoothly for a time until at some point, the tide turns and we find ourselves swimming against the tide.  I watched ducks do that very thing as they rode the rapids, so to speak.  The tide carried them downstream, but when they’d floated further than they wanted, they flew back to where they’d started. Then the tide took them out again until they flew back again.  Over and over they repeated the same pattern.

It was funny to watch, but do you ever find that pattern in your own life in one area or another?    I know I do.  Whether it’s relationships with God or other people, or health, or finances, things go along smoothly until something comes up and upsets things for some time. Sometimes it feels like I’ve taken 1 step forward, 2 steps back.  Essentially I’m headed in reverse. 

The good news is that if we stay the course things will turn around for us again and we’ll be headed the direction we’d gone originally.  Perseverance will pay off and we’ll reach our goal—just like those ducks do every day.