Currently, I am in Puerto Rico. Looking through the past few days I have hiked the gorgeous La Mina Falls of the El Yunque Rainforest hearing the echoes of the Coqui frogs. I have kayaked the bioluminescence of Fajardo as well as Mosquito Bay. I have snorkelled with schools of tropical fishes and manueverd around jellyfish the size of bread plates. Eaten Chillo Frito in the Pinones region served with the classic Puerto Rican plantain dish known as Mofongo. And yes, went through the guided tour of the caves of Rio Camuy. But I will save those stories for another time. Today, a new tale was born...
As I hiked from Pinky's in Condado, where I ate their delicious Mallorca sandwhich, finally tasting this delightful soft Puerto Rican bread roll, I started out toward La Playa de Isla Verde (aka Isla Verde) where I planned to swim out to the actual Isla Verde and back.
I started thinking about preachers and their impact in my life and one particular preacher whom I asked for help, exposing some of my weaknesses and he turned me down. For a while I felt hurt and disappointed until one day I realized that he had never experienced the full grace of God. We cannot comfort others until we have been comforted. We cannot extend grace until we realize how much grace we have been given. And most of all, we cannot love until we have been loved. As my mind continued to search, my feet continued the trek.
As I walked through the playas or beaches of Condado, Ocean Park and Isla Verde, I stopped to inquire about the swim from a few locals. Always a good thing to do.
It turned out when I asked about Isla Verde, she thought I was talking about Isla Piedra which is much further, about one kilometer or .6 miles off the coast. It also turned out her brother, works at the local Super Foods and swims there on a daily basis. She gave me a phone number in case I wanted to stop by his store.
At this point, I was already pumped. Excited, I continued on my way. When I got to the place where I would take off, I discretely hid my things under some bushes and headed into the water with my snorkeling gear, swim trunks and water shoes. Nicely lathered up with sun tan lotion of course.
As I headed out to the island, I realized that the island was a lot further than I thought. With the waves pushing me up and down, back and forth, I felt stagnant. I would spend a lot of time just conserving energy and floating for a while or treading water.
About one fourth of the way in, negative thoughts started to creep in my head and I almost decided to give up and turn back. I was well past the buoys, which complimented the warning signs that stated anyone who swam past the buoys was doing so at their own personal risk. And here I was with no life jacket, floating around in the ocean.
Then, the verse hit me. Faith like a mustard seed will move mountains. I have read this a thousand times but for some reason I was going to relearn what this verse meant today.
I am reading this book right now by Jeff Olson called the slight edge. It talks about how little pebbles tossed in over and over and over throughout a long period of time have a way of making a dramatic effect.
Marriages just do not go south. They turn sour based on tiny microscopic decisions made over and over on a daily basis. To reverse the tide, no matter what the circumstance, it takes having the willingness to decide to throw that little tiny microscopic pebble.
Finances work the same way. Sometimes you do not feel like you are going forward but little do you know, you are not falling behind which is huge. And the waves would draw back and I would push and push and even though I was not going forward, I knew I was not getting drawn back. Which meant, I would have the chance to move forward twice as much as I normally would on the rise of the next wave.
So I decided to turn off that negative channel and throw the pebble. The tiny microscopic stroke. One, two... thirty... Rest. And I could not even see the island most of the time. I tried using the clouds. I tried treading for several minutes as I looked around at the big blue, completely disoriented, choking on water as the waves corrupted my breathing from the snorkelling gear. For the tenth time, I yanked off the mouth piece gasping for air.
Then, there it was a glimpse. One, two... thirty... Rest. Half way in, I was blessed to have hit a coral reef. Protection. Relaxing. Should I go back? Faith like a mustard seed. I threw out my arms alternating between breast stroke and free style. I threw out the little pebble. The slight edge. I had faith. But faith without works is dead. So I threw out again. One... Two... Thirty... Rest... My little insignificant mustard seed.
Half way between the last coral reef and Isla Piedra which was now much easier to see, I hit more coral reef. Now I knew it would be much easier to rest on Isla Piedra then to swim back.
Over and over, I repeated my cycle. One... Two... Thirty... Rest... My small insignificant cycle. It did nothing, or at least nothing I could see.
When the island was only twenty yards away, I eased up, knowing I would soon be safe. That if I needed, I could stay there or flag down a boat. Saftey. I slowly made my way to the rock. Feeling the waves, becoming in tune, picking the right time so I would not get smacked into the rocks. I pulled myself up.
Extatic, elated, I yelled out a big Japanese Kiai, channeling my energy into the air.
Then, rest. This small island of rock, with no one else on it was a great time for prayer and meditation. And God gets all of me. He gets my questions, my gratitude, my anger. And I tell Him, He is great and that this journey, this swim, this is everything I have, everything I am capable of and yet, it is miniscule when compared to the Earth's 12,756 kilometers of diameter and the Milky Way's 950,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers of diameter. This Isla Piedra, one measly kilometer off the coast and I am exhausted. And I am excited and ready to go back and God puts on my heart to rest. He lets me know the right amount of time has passed by a boat slowly disappearing over the horizon. Okay, God, I will wait.
And as I sit there resting, meditating, praying, huge waves come crashing in and I am scared. I want to leave the island. But though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And when we follow what God puts on our heart, it is then that the dangers of life come crashing in. And we fear. Just keep your eyes on me, He says.
And slowly, the boat disappears, maybe giving me a good half hour to hour of rest.
As I head out, I know keeping a big hotel in sight will be much easier than trying to tread water and wait for a wave high enough to lift me up to see tiny Isla Piedra. I am Ann Voskamp Eucharisteo thankful.
My cycle continues. The little pebbles thrown onto the scale over and over and over, which can eventually tilt the scale to outweigh the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building of years of contempt and resentment building up. Or the Empire State Building of hundreds of thousands of dollars racked up in debt.
Such power. Take wise to the ant. The power of the little things repeated over and over. No matter how deep your hole. And here I was, tired and in a small hole myself.
I head out the stretch with emptiness leaving the protection of the coral. I continue my cycle. Within minutes, I look down and see a two foot reef shark!
It is swimming to the right side of me, below me about ten feet. Thank you God for giving me rest.
And everytime I freak out, I lose sight of it as I gasp for air. But there is no way I am taking off my snorkelling mask. My thoughts go into panic mode.
Where is it? Stay calm. Maybe it left. There it is. Keep moving, its just a water dog. You will not want to rest so keep the strokes short and smooth.
He swims with me for a while. Sometimes to my right, sometimes to my left. My thoughts continue.
He must smell the blood from my cut legs. As long as he is there, within clear view, maybe I can rest. Get big! If he approaches grab his gills. Where is the hotel? There it is. Where is the shark? His bite will probably not be lethal. I feel like fainting. Keep him in sight. Must keep moving.
As I continue swimming, each stroke, miniscule, meaningless, I keep going. Faith like a mustard seed. While scared out of my wits, I realized how cool it is to swim with a shark! As long as I do not die! Or get biten!
The journey must have been twenty minutes. Then finally! Saving Nemo reef protection. Still about .3 miles from shore, I get rest in the reef. Floating, watching the reef shark swim around. I could have stayed there all day. Beautiful fish swimming beneath me. Safely at a distance from the shark!
But being exhausted, I took enough time floating to rest and then headed back toward shore. As I swam over the reef, which varied from five to fifteen feet deep, the shark seemed to have disappeared. While I hoped that was the case, I was not going to bank on it.
Hyper alert and read to make the final trek, I continued. Free style. One... Two... Thirty... Rest... And again.
This part of the journey was nice and smooth. I could see the hotel easily and after a few cycles, I could see the hotel getting closer and closer. With no shark as a threat, my resting periods were a little longer.
After cycling through over and over and over, I finally, I hit the buoys. Yes! It was like being twenty yards from Isla Piedra except these buoys were probably fifty yards out.
My thoughts continued. The final stretch. I am not going to die! What was I thinking?
I took my time on this last stretch, resting in thirty to one minutes in between cycles. And finally, the last insignificant stroke. Land!
I slipped entering the shore from the waves crashing onto the rocky edges of the beach. Then, as I walked over dry land, I coughed out some of the water I had been swallowing, gagging and hacking. Walking into the shade, I felt dizzy but I hade made it.
All of my belongings were left hidden and untouched, fortunately. Or this tale may have continued...
Matthew 17:20
He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
...
<SI> Scott Izu, PhD
© October 2015
