With sticky watermelon slices in our fingers, my sons and I hiked toward the sound of a frothy roar. The boys trotted ahead and found a flume spewing water through a natural canal. My eight-year-old gauged a leap to the opposite side of a concrete structure and bounded like a whippet. He waved his melon at his five-year-old brother who stopped dead on the spot where his brother launched.

No way, I thought. He won’t try it.

The rushing water drowned out my warning, and he jumped–missing the top of the opposite landing by a toe. Creek water poured over his upturned face, and he was gone.

I raced alongside the canal, dashing in and out of undergrowth, always too late to grab him as he drifted by. I glimpsed him floating on his back, calmly staring at the sky, eyes wide open. I finally outdistanced him, and my little Aquaman floated into my arms.

He had held his breath the whole time.

As I reflect on my son’s fateful leap, I realize that I sometimes take on more than I can handle too. I fill more positions than I should. I work too many hours. I volunteer for too many good causes. I promise to attend too many functions. When my health or relationships begin to show the strain, I need to pull back.

When Jesus noticed the weariness of his apostles, he ordered them to come away from the intensity of ministry for some personal time.

In our busy lives it’s awkward to say, “I’m sorry. I can’t.” But it’s wiser to find a solitary place and regroup than to SPLASH.

Mark 6:30-32

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

Psa. 127:1-2

Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.