When the young missionary arrived at his new post in a small African village near the river, the first thing he saw was a person floating down the river. Without a thought for his own safety, he jumped in dragged the person to the river bank where the villagers helped to pull him out. Unfortunately the man was already dead; suffering from multiple stab wounds
which the missionary assumed was caused by some tribal feud between the natives.

The next day as they were arranging for the body to be buried, two more bodies came floating down the river and after that, each day there were more bodies and more burials taking place. In a short time the missionary had the whole village organised to deal with the endless supply of bodies floating down the river. Some of the villagers were assigned to fetch the bodies from the river, while others prepared the bodies for burial, yet others were employed in making crude coffins and others dug the graves. In no time at all, the whole village was working together and became highly efficient at claiming and burying, whilst the missionary performed the funeral services.

Then one day, the missionary’s superior arrived at the village to see how he was getting on with his new appointment. He was told the saga of the constant flow of bodies and the operation the missionary had organised to deal with the problem. He said that although he was most impressed with the efficient organisation involved to deal with the problem, he couldn't
help wondering why no one had thought to travel up the river to find out why all these people were being murdered in the first place.

Sometimes, we too are all invited to journey up the river, to find out what is wrong in our lives. Why are we sinning and why do we appear to mess up our lives up so much? This is an opportunity to address all our weaknesses and ask God to help us to overcome what is negative and destructive in our lives.