"How to Save a Life..."

From a well known song by The Fray... this lyric was on my mind for the rest of the day. This summer I went to Jackson Hole with a few guys. Ones dad, Ed, has a raft and took us white water rafting. With the ABNORMALLY high water year, Ed wasn't really looking forward to taking a bunch of amateurs down the most intense stretch of river. The ranger explained to us that rafts often get thrown with a water level of 19 or higher, and that 16 is good safe fun. He then explained that the water was at 23.6 and that we would literally be taking our lives into our own hands if we chose to hit lunch counter and other rapids. We decided against it--or more accurately decided to trust Ed's judgement and he didn't think it was a good idea. Saturday morning rolled around and nothing seemed to work for us to hit the mellow stretch, we couldn't get air any where, and literally it just seemed that if we were going to go it was going to be on lunch counter...

Later, after helping to save lives, we realized just why we were on the river that day. We were right in front of a raft that was thrown and were able to pull them into our raft. Luckily, there was a leak in our raft which meant we rode much lower in the water and our chances of being thrown were far less than the large commercial rafts.

After we picked the first two people up, I was given strength and peace from God to help calm them--AND as the men in my boat can attest--I was anything but calm previous to this on the river. We still didn't have verification that the others were ok, and as we prayed both silently and aloud to God for the welfare of the others... It was verification to me that God places us in one another's paths for a reason, and that as they later told us--we were their angels that day on the river.

A verse in the Book of Mormon explains that "God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings." -Mosiah 8:18 I hope to live each day in such a way that whether I be on a river, at work or at home, that I can qualify to be where God wants me to be and to be doing what He would have me do.

To the lifelong friends made that day on the river. Cheers!