Aired up

March 22, 2007

By Randy Mantik

During a recent vacation, we stayed in a house on the banks of the Crystal River. What a delight it was to sit with a cup of coffee in the morning and watch the sun glint off the water, listening to the birds welcome a new day.

Not only was the river pretty to look at, it was also fun to tube in! At first we found ourselves dragging bottom quite a bit. In short order we deduced there wasn’t enough air in our tubes. So I huffed and I puffed and we gave it another try. Better, but still no banana. I finally got those tubes adequately filled. Off we went and with much more success.

Anyway, as I was blowing the tubes up that day, I got to thinking, Why was I working so hard to get them filled? Because I knew it would result in a much better ride down the river. The more air I got in those tubes, the better we would float, enabling us to miss a lot of the sandbars and other obstructions.

The whole experience reminded me of prayer. You see, every day we are rolling down a river called life. As we go, we find there are points where it’s easy to get hung up. Time and time again we find ourselves stuck, unable to get going. We haul ourselves up, pick up the tube of our life without stopping to blow a little more prayer into it, plop it back into the water, flop down and drag bottom for a few more yards till we get hung up again. Our lives become a wretched cycle of futile efforts.

As the apostle Paul said, “What a wretched man I am!” (Romans 7:24, NIV).  But when we stop and take time to pray it’s as if our lives are suddenly “aired up,” enabling us to float over a lot of the rough spots, no longer dragging bottom. We can say with Paul as he continues in the passage, “Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).

That day on the river, I’m sure I provided some first-rate entertainment for the neighbors who lived along its banks as I performed my crab-walk imitation, trying to get back into the flow of the stream. Many of us do the same thing in the river of life, expending huge amounts of energy trying to get afloat again after we’ve hit a bad spot. We neglect spending time in God’s presence, receiving an infusion of His fresh wind and grace that we so desperately need to keep us afloat.

Are you scraping bottom today? Do you need a little airing up? Lift up your face. Feel the wind of the Spirit begin to blow over your soul. Let Him blow into you the power and ability you need to navigate the next rough spot in the river. Let it flow, and be refreshed in the sweetness of His presence!

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Crossroads Church of the Assemblies of God in Pembine, Wis.