So I decide on the spur of the moment to paddle out & catch a few waves today. I wasn’t going to because I’m trying to take it easy & make sure that I don’t re-injure anything on my grill. It was supposed to be pretty big today so I was going to sit today out. But my friend Ken called & he & his son Collin were going to hit up Blacks (for you out of town types, this is a thick, fast barreling break, probably the most gnarly wave in SD). This got the surf juices flowing. I threw my stuff in my car & went to my normal spot (not Blacks Beach). Everything was great. Caught some fun waves. Passed up a few trying to be cautious, but it was a warm beautiful Saturday so a few other people in the 7th largest city in the US also thought the beach sounded cool. So on my last wave (I was taking this one in) I took off down the face & as the wave started to close out, I straightened it out & managed to avoid the grand-central-like crowd of people that were in front of me. Just as I cleared the last one & the shoulder high wave was about to break behind me, I squatted down a little & then heard that sound: KU-KUNK-WHAP-FWANK (that’s the sound of a surf board hitting something solid). Someone had lost their board & FROM BEHIND IT WHACKED ME IN THE MELLON! My 1st reaction (after of course a prayer for the one who hit me…) was *&^% not AGAIN… then an actual prayer: “You’re kidding right? This didn’t just happen.”
Here’s a review of my last few weeks:
- Hit in the nose with a board – 9 stitches, broken nose… then re-break by (no kidding) Dr Dent!
- Fin box ripped out of my beloved Waldon Magic Performance Longboard as I surfed over a rock – RIP to my favorite board.
- Whacked in the Head again today.
So now my prayer is this: Is there a message in all this? I know there is a great illustration, but is there a message?
Today my daily bible reading lead me to 1 Sam 8:19
Nevertheless, the people refused to listen.
I don’t know that every whack to the dome is a message from God. But I have seen greater long-term danger in asking too little than too much if God is trying to say something to me. God is involved in the mundane whacks of life. He is saying more to us than we are hearing. I fear becoming a person that “refuses to listen to the voice”
I’m going to go take an aspirin.
