LIFE can sometimes feel as though we are drowning. The water seems too high and waves too rough. We flail away reaching for the air as if the air will help us in our struggle. We think somehow that the more we fight the more the air will cooperate, the depth of the water will lessen, and the waters will calm. Our feet kick below the surface as we tread furiously to remove ourselves from the struggle with no success. It seems the more we fight the more we lose energy and sink deeper. WHAT IF we stopped grasping at the air? WHAT IF we stopped kicking so frantically? WHAT IF we straightened out our legs and felt firm ground underneath our feet. We didn’t need to reach to the air anymore as if it was going to help us anyways. We didn’t need to kick frantically but instead could stand. The water was still high and the waves rougher then what we would like but we were not going to drown. The earth beneath our feet would keep us firm in what still seemed scary, sometimes hard to breathe, as the rough water still splashed against our face. We reach our hand below the surface of the water towards the shore and it seems to be gripped by another slowly guiding us, step by step, forward towards the shore. With each step the depth of the water lessens and the turmoil of the waves become less effective in their ability to sway us. The steps are slow and deliberate. We want to go faster, but although we desire to be on the shore, the calmer we move confidently in the steps being taken, trusting the hand that holds ours, we know we will get there. We know we will stand on solid ground looking back at the rough waters that almost took us down and they won’t seem as frightening. We will have learned that if we find ourselves again in the waters that seem too high and too rough, which we will, it is not the frantic fight that will save us but a surrendering trust to the One who will not let us drown.
“When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown!” Isaiah 43:2
Comments