He Won’t Let You Drown

That is how my four year old recounted her first swimming lesson while on the phone with her grandmother. True, there was a minor “incident” in which she went under water for a good minute, 30 secs, okay….15 secs maybe and the instructor had to pull her up. Immediately following the incident, she was ready to pack up her goggles and flip flops and head home from the activity she had exuberantly been asking me about daily since she found out she was going. That brief moment of uncertainty had stirred in her a fear that outweighed every bit of anticipation and excitement which had been building in her for weeks! Following “the incident,” she repeatedly recounted to me how she had “drowned” and how it was too much water in the pool. After explaining to her that she did not drown, nor was she even close to drowning (I assured her mommy would have jumped in the pool in my skirt and high heels myself before I would let that happen) I realized how her fear mirrored a feeling I was familiar with.

I’ve thought that to myself numerous times. In work. In marriage/relationships. In motherhood. In household management. IN LIFE. There have been times when the weight of all that I have been entrusted with consumes me and bears down to the point where I feel as if I can’t breath. I find myself mentally thrashing, waving my hands, and trying to scream “HELP ME” while holding my breath to keep the water from invading my lungs. There is no worse feeling in the world than to think that life is too much. But just when I am ready to let my body go limp and sink into the depths of all that surrounds me, I feel the strong arms of My Redeemer pulling me back to the surface. I’m not ashamed to say I have been in this situation more than once, but each time and every time, HE has rescued and resuscitated me.

When life around us seems to be overpowering and ready to take us under, how easy it is to forget that we have a built in bouying system called faith. And once we engage it, we are able to float through our situations and circumstances. Now, it is not to say you won’t get a little water in your nose or throat a few times, but remember that Our Heavenly Father has promised to “never leave or forsake us” (Deuteronomy 31:6). No matter if the weight of life turns you into a 4-year old thrashing in a pool of uncertainty, know that you have a Father who stands poolside ready to pull you up to the surface.

Be encouraged and know that God will never let you drown.