This is a bit of a play on words, but you’ll soon understand.
When I first moved to St. Louis one of the first things I did was find the local wakeboarders. Afterall, not owning a boat I’d need to find some pulls…and quick.
The first rider I met was Jeff Danielson. Jeff is great, and he was completely inviting and friendly from the start. We rode a few times in St. Louis, but not nearly enough for the 6 years that I lived there. I remember when my family and his family finally got together for dinner one night. We had already made the desicion to move back to Texas and follow God’s plan for our lives.
That’s too far down the road though…let me back up a year. I was a youth pastor in St. Louis for a few years and we did an annual camp. Of course I did everything in my power to have that camp have as much wakeboarding as possible. Jeff and his wife Tammy came down to help us teach the kids how to ride that year. It was awesome. First of all, Jeff is the best coach I have ever had the pleasure of being in the boat with. Second of all…his wife is the second. The two in a boat together are an amazing team. Just for a bit of a back ground on Jeff, he and Shaun Murray used to ride together in St. Louis.
So it’s a day before all the campers get to the camp and we’re getting some sets in before the kids get there. This was going to be one of the first real years back at riding since my knee injury, and thanks to Jeff he helped me get back. So I’m strapping in on the swim deck and Jeff hops back there with me, bows his head and prays. It was such a cool time between brothers in Christ, and wakeboarders. It was a simple prayer, somthing like “God, would you let Alf have a great set worshiping You?” It was also an impacting prayer. That meant so much to me that he would be bold enough to pray with me. He later told me that Rob Struharik did the same thing with him at one point in time, and he had been doing that ever since.
I think this might have been spurred on by seeing the clips of Randall in Transgression. In the begining of the film you see Randall praying before a set on the back of the boat, and then in the end he prays on the back of the boat.
I encourage you to pray everywhere, not just on the back of a boat. I also encourage you to pray on the back of the boat. Doesn’t matter who you’re with, if you love your God, ask Him to be with you as you ride. Pray with others close to you as you get ready to ride. It just seems to fit.
Ride On.
Alf
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