Glass of water, anyone?

Allow me to state the obvious: there is a lot of water in the Puget Sound. Lots. A quick google search and one click of the mouse informs me that up to 367,000 cubic feet of water flows into the puget sound from fresh water sources alone per second. That is a lot of water.

I spent this last weekend at my favorite place in the world: Thetis Island, British Columbia. Every time I step off a ferry or boat and my foot hits the ground on the island, I am overcome with a sense of peace that I cannot explain. It's just -- everything is right no matter what is going wrong. I was able to re-connect with old friends and leisurely pass the time riding in speed boats and lying on floating docks between gourmet meals and fabulous teaching and encouragement. A couple of main things that have really stuck with me - the glory of God should be SHINING out of us, not just leaking, not even just noticeable SHINING! Unmistakable and unmissable. God's glory and work is no mere candle bobbing in a darkened attic, but a blazing sun piercing out of the blackest cave. Something else, it's okay if we don't know. Cluelessness is okay. When Jesus healed the blind man in John 9, the people and religious leaders were questioning the formerly blind man as to who Jesus was and how he had healed him. What did this man know? Nothing!

When the people ask him where Jesus is in v.12, he replies "I do not know!"

v. 24: So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man (Jesus) is a sinner. v.25 He therefore answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."

It's okay if we don't know! Jesus finds the man later and tell him to follow Him and the man does not because he knows everything, not because he knows that the scriptures point to Jesus as the Messiah, or because he could logically defend his choice but because he saw the transformation in his own life. And that transformation will be unmistakable if we rely on Jesus to change us to His glory.

Back to the Puget Sound trivia, this weekend was also my first extended small boat ride. About 12 of us piled into two boats to make the 8 hr one way trip to Thetis Island from Des Moines on Friday. The trip up went decently, though the boat I was in was significantly slower then the other boat so it was frustrating at times - I think I got some sweet pictures can't wait to develop my film. The ride on the way BACK was a little bit more interesting. The engine started backfiring immediately after we started it so we had to go even SLOWER to try to keep the engine running. Four hours later we reach Friday Harbor for U.S. Customs. After leaving Friday Harbor, we brave a long section of viscious rip tides, whirlpools, and stray logs before hitting the strait of wandafuka (sp?). Okay, the strait is a pretty big section of open water that gets rollers in from the ocean as well as the wind which whips up some pretty nice waves as well. I finished my book just as the first wave came flying over the side of the boat and we were off on a natural roller coaster. I stood outside the cabin, hanging on and smiling to myself with delight as we plunged and rolled and rocked and bucked our way through a sea that was growing steadily more angry. Forty five minutes later, the engine starts bogging down and we're doing about 5 mph before someone looks down. O. What's that? THAT is four inches of water in the bottom of the boat that is coming up very, very fast. O yes, friends, the S.S. Minnow with Gilligan, your's truly, is sinking. Bob, our fearless leader, immediately got on his antique, "sometimes works, I don't even know" radio and alerts the caost guard with a mayday! while I and the only other guy on that boat under 40 years old spring forward with five gallon buckets and start bailing for all we're worth. Somewhere in the thrill ride of the ocean, we'd gotten separated from our other boat so the only nearby vessels were three cruise ships leaving for a week of Alaskan site seeing. Fantastic. I continued to bail for the next two hours barely keeping up with the inrushing water as we limped to the nearest dock.

I didn't really mind too much, tho really. I was laughing and singing with my bailing partner glad for the distraction from the long ride - that is until someone pressed a life jacket into my hands and I suddenly thought that this whole situation could get interesting. Very interesting. Aren't life jackets for emergencies? Hmm... Then the only things I could think of is Paul writing "To live is Christ, to die is gain," how I no longer shook my head at the disciple's panic in the midst of a storm, Tom Sawyer (figure it out), and wishing I had more film.

Anyway, we obviously made it to shore where we discovered a rather large hole in the hull of our iron clad ship and proceeded to take hot coin-operated showers and eat crab chowder at the marina while we waited a few hours for a vehicle. MMm, 3 am arrival, anyone? Anyhow, we met some cool people and God is always good - had this whole adventure began twenty to fifteen minutes earlier when we were still in the strait, we all woulda been swimming for sure. Hey, I coulda been on the news! :)

Cheers, all.