Sunday, October 29th – Key West

The Veendam’s first port after leaving Tampa this weekend was Key West, Florida. After a whirlwind first day onboard, I couldn’t wait to get my feet back on dry land – and especially in a place so familiar (the Fascination would port here once a week). With five hours at my leisure, I packed up my iPod with all the tunes I needed to learn, my shopping list for Walgreen’s, and made a beeline for Starbucks!

Once I had all my errands taken care of, I still had plenty of time to spare. My feet, now blistered from the sandals I haven’t worn all summer, were begging for the feel of sand and saltwater, so I trekked the rest of the way down Duval Street to the pier at the southernmost point of the island, which is also the very southernmost point of the continental United States. And there, God taught me an unexpected and important lesson: Dive In!

>another cool movie is going to go right HERE soon!<

This dog, Max, a red-nosed pitbull, was having a blast as his owner would run to the end of the pier, throw a coral stone, and Max would chase him, leap off the pier and dive in after it! Of course, the coral would sink, and Max would return to the shore, where his master was waiting to run again and repeat the whole circuit a few times. He never seemed to tire of the game, and was always ready for another go.

But Max was clearly not afraid. What Max knows, and you can’t see in the video, is that his master is walking right beside him as he swims along the pier. Also, there is a pipeline just beneath the surface that Max can barely reach with his toes, so every once in a while he jumps on it until he gets all the way back to the shore, where his master is always waiting with another rock, ready to go again.

And later, the pelicans sitting on the posts of the broken down pier next to us were diving for their supper. I don’t know how they knew where to find the fish, but they would swing up in the air, just skimming the surface, and once they spotted a fish just under the water, they would DIVE and scoop it up! The littlest seagulls were pestering them, hoping to scavenge some leftover bits. But the pelicans would shoo them away, carefully hold the fish in their throat and filter all the seawater out of their beaks, then tilt their head back and – down the hatch!

God is all around us, especially in nature. Why should we fear? If He leads you to it, He will lead you through it. Max was never afraid to jump off the pier, because he knew the pipe was there to help him if he needed it, and that his master always had a watchful eye on him. The pelicans dive despite the pesky seagulls. So too should we dive without fear. When God invites us to take on a task that we think might be too big for our abilities, it is then that we must trust Him the most.

It’s a lesson I needed right at that moment. Here I am, petrified of being thrown to the wolves, of being asked to perform 45 songs I’ve only barely just learned on the first day. And yet, I get here and the band has been terrific, only asking me to sing the four or five songs I’ve already conquered, and giving me plenty of rehearsal time to learn more before they’ll ask me to perform them in front of an audience. The Lord has led me to this, and now He’s quietly giving me all I need and leading me through this. Why should I fear?

Watch the video again and see what the Lord reveals to you! Dive in!