Never say never

originally posted Monday, August 20, 2007

Corinne and I recently went fishing with a new friend and he told us a story about why he never says never any more. Recently he had a friend from up north fishing with him in the saltwater flats area close to Cape Canaveral. As happens often they spotted a large alligator cruising near the boat in the brackish water. The New Yorker asked Dave if they should be alarmed or move to a new place. Dave assured him that gators never come after a boat larger than them. The boat continued to drift closer to where the gator was and, again, the northern friend asked Dave if he was sure there was no need for alarm. Dave again assured him there was never any problems between boats and gators in these waters. Just as he said that the gator submerged in the shallow water near the boat. Evidently, as the boat drifted over the submerged gator in the shallows, the keel of the boat touched the gator's back, as it erupted out of the water, bit the side rail of the boat puncturing the fiberglass, then proceeded to bite the bottom of the boat, tearing off a rubber keel protection in it's mouth. Dave grabbed his fiberglass push pole to get the gator to let go only for the gator to bite the pole and cost Dave $600 in push pole purchases. The large gator finally let go and left for other adventures. Dave showed us the punctures in his boat from the gator's teeth as we all swore never to say never again. *you could never fund an orphanage on prayer alone but George Mueller did. *you could never build a Christian school with no land and only a dollar bill, but my dad did. *you could never reach the world for Jesus using large events for young people, but Billy Graham did. *you could never expect a woman to make the world sit up and take notice of her ministry (a woman minister?), but Mother Teresa did. *you could never impact lives in eight different countries from Lake Mary, FL, but IsleGO is. *you could never expect God to answer your prayer, respond to your questions, meet your needs, show you His plans, can you? The longer I live the more I realize that our God is bigger than we ever imagined, different than we ever pictured, and works in ways we never expected...join the ranks of those of us who swear never to say never again!