By Josh Kerby
When you come on a trip with Journey Quest, it will probably look as if everything is running smoothly and straightforward. Most of our day trips are relatively straightforward to book, plan, and run because it’s what we do almost every day. Weeklong trips, however, are a little bit tougher and complicated when it comes to planning and executing them. You may think, “It shouldn’t be too difficult to run,” but have you thought of everything that has to be in place to make a trip happen.
What needs to be in place to run a trip? For starters, we need a boat, paddles, personal floatation devices (PFD), and a guide of course. That’s only a start, though; let’s dive a little deeper. We need to pump up the boat, have equipment on the boat for rescues, first aid, and even to use the facilities. Yes, we had to think about that. Now, that’s only going down the river. We will need to pick you up in one of our five-star shuttle vans with a classy shuttle driver. You are going down the river, and we can bring you back. So far so good, but wait, what about checking in, signing waivers, even booking the trip? Someone had to figure out how to get all that set up. What if you want pictures? How can we get those pictures to you? As you can see, there is a lot to think about when taking only five people down the river. What happens when we need to take down sixty, or one hundred? What happens when we add weeklong trips to all of this planning? As you can see, there has to be a lot in place before we can take people down the river.
Some of the guides get stuck in what seems like an endless loop of shuttling. We all want to be on the river doing the fun stuff, but we don’t always get what we want. We start feeling as though we aren’t making a significant impact in the lives of our guests. We begin to think that our role isn’t as important anymore. This is true in life as well. Sometimes we start to feel as though our lives aren’t making an impact or that they don’t matter, but that’s simply not true. God is orchestrating everything in this universe, and He has given YOU a specific role. He has entrusted us with this specific role and given us purpose in this role. Just like our shuttle drivers, they are entrusted with the specific role of getting our customers back to the boathouse safely. Without a shuttle driver, we would have a lot of people stuck at the takeout. They pray for those on the river, for their safety and for their hearts to be softened to the Holy Spirit’s call. They can even rest, something we all need but don’t necessarily want to have. The same is true for you. Without you, your role isn’t being filled and something isn’t being completed.
God has also given us a passion, but He also asks us to surrender ourselves to Him. In doing so, He uses that passion He gave us to impact others lives and give glory to Him. Sometimes it isn’t exactly as we envisioned, but we are still making an impact in people’s lives. Just like most of the guides are passionate about taking people down the river. God may use us in a way we didn’t think. God may use us as a shuttle driver that helps in the process of taking people down the river. Even though it isn’t specifically what we wanted, God has us in a role that he needed to be filled. The question is, are you ready to take on this role God gave you? Are you willing to seek Him on how to best fulfill this role? Are you willing to do what it takes?
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