He couldn't even consider fishing that first week after his father's passing. His emotions were too raw. The thought of taking his father's canoe, using his father's nets, and doing his father's work without him was unbearable.
By the following week he knew his family needed him to go, but the burden was overwhelming. For as much as Ezra wanted to be like his father, he recognized more than ever just how far he was from achieving that goal.
"I felt like there was no hope," he says. "I found it difficult the first time to walk in the steps of my father. As I took the canoe out into the sea, I felt his absence. Those words my father had spoken came back to me, and I felt the weight of responsibility for my family."
Standing in the shallows of the Pacific, he turned to the only Person who could help him—the One his father had taught him to trust.
"Show me where my father stood," Ezra prayed. "Help me fulfill my father's wish for me."