Picture yourself floating down the Apple or the Cannon River. If you grew up in this area it may be a familiar image. You rent a tube, plop it into the river, flop on and float downstream for a few yours until you meet a bus that picks you up and drives you back to the place where you put in.
Maybe you went with your family, or a youth group, or maybe with a couple of friends from the neighborhood. Maybe you went when you were little, or as a teen, or maybe you went as an adult. Maybe you enjoyed the easy going calm waters, or the exhilaration of the rapids, or the feeling of just going “somewhere” though you never quite knew “where.” And all the while, the river carried you onward.
This is what my experience with River of Joy has been like, full of friends and family, calms and rapids, spinning to face the front and looking back. I really can’t put into words how meaningful and memorable this ride has been for me, but I will say this – The ride has been amazing, exhilarating, and life changing.
But as I think a little more about it, there is one way that these two journeys down a river do not compare. You see, no matter what, when you get on an inner tube and float down a river the journey always comes to and end. You have to give back your tube, go back to your car, and drive home. But God has provided for us a never-ending journey. He has given us the opportunity to always ride his river. I have no idea what lies ahead, but right now I am happily riding a River that brings me unbelievable Joy!
