Life is a paddleboat  

Do you ever feel like you are sinking in problems? Are you feeling overwhelmed by life? Do you feel like no matter how hard you try you just keep sinking  and the load is to heavy for you to keep moving forward? Is your faith being tested again and again? Life is much like a paddleboat slowly filling up with water and getting heavier and heavier and harder to paddle and slowly sinking in the middle of the lake. I learned a lot about paddleboats and life on Saturday July 7th, 2018 when I was at the end of my rope with life. I felt buried in problems, I was depressed, I had gained some weight from depression and I was in chronic pain in my body from stress and depression. I had cried out to God many times to help me and he heard me, I just didn't know it yet. My friend Doc invited me to the lake for the weekend, so I went to get away and relax. We decided against our better judgement to take out his paddle boat even with rough waters and high winds.We started on our journey to an island about a mile away, we were talking and laughing as we paddled along enjoying the ride. I was becoming tired so we decided with the winds becoming stronger we had better head back to his dock before dark. We paddled and paddled and paddled and my knees were starting to burn with pain. After about 30 minutes of what felt like literally being stuck in one spot in over 100 feet of water, we knew we were in big trouble. We watched boat after boat pass us by and we prayed and prayed for God to help us but every boat continued to pass us by. In fact one boat with about 10 younger people yelled and asked us if we were retarded for being so far out in a paddleboat with the weather like it is. The paddleboat was swaying roughly and water started filling up the paddleboat. I had an empty water bottle so I quickly started dipping the bottle in the water trying to remove the water from the paddleboat while I continued to paddle. Imagine paddling profusely while trying to remove water so you don't sink.  I would get the water almost out of the paddleboat and over and over again and again the rough water kept sloshing in the paddleboat causing it to slowly sink. Doc decided he needed to get some weight off the paddleboat so he jumped in the water and started swimming while pushing the paddleboat. He went to the front of the paddleboat and started pulling while swimming and I was paddling, still we were getting no where. Doc said "I have an idea and I think it will work!" He said "Instead of fighting against the current and wearing ourselves out lets paddle diagonal across to shore then paddle along the shore line so we can get out of the strong wind. He jumped back on the paddleboat and it took us over an hour to get to shore. When we got to shore we jumped out praised God, emptied the water and rested a minute. We then proceeded along shore, while I paddled Doc walked barefooted on rocks and all kinds of debris, he pulled and I paddled. we could see the dock and we were cheering, just as we thought we were good now, the boat started filling up again but this time we were weighed way down. It's almost like God was reminding us that he was still in control and we needed to remain faithful. We made it to the neighbor's shore when the paddleboat was completely full of water, so we got the boat to shore and I ran up and grabbed a bucket so we could empty the water and get the paddleboat up onto the dock. We were cold and exhausted but we safely made it through the struggle. Life is up and down always,like you might have plenty of money in the bank today and tomorrow an emergency happens that takes it all, or at work you could be slammed today and tomorrow is dead, just like the paddleboat we emptied the water and then we were sinking again. If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains and if you don't give up you will make it!