I once tried to teach my daughter how to swim. We both got into the pool and I placed my hand on her back and held her at the surface of the water. As she started to splash her hands and kick her feet, I slowly removed my support from underneath. She smiled and continued to "swim". It was then that I noticed a change in her expression. She was sinking. The water was rising up to eye level and she didn't know what to do. What was holding her up was gone and she was completely under her own power to stay afloat. She kicked harder and faster but still continued her descent.
Like any child would do, she started to panic. She abandoned the techniques we had been working on and just tried to keep her head above the surface. Her heart rate increased and her eyes began to fill up with tears. She became desperate for someone to come back under her and lift her up to safety.
Sound familiar?
Feel like you're drowning? Debt. Relational collapse. Family trouble. Work stress. Health issues for you or a loved one? It's hard sometimes. Life is tough. What can you do about it?
When crisis comes, many of us act like a struggling swimmer. We abandon what we know will help us in hopes of just surviving. We stop praying...stop going to church...stop giving of our resources... We just flail around in hopes that we will be able to stay afloat for a little while longer. God didn't die on the cross for us to live lives of panic.
What many of us fail to realize is that God never leaves. He is always there with us watching us learn lessons through our challenges that we couldn't get any other way. Today's verse says that when we are weak...when we cry out and feel desparate...we are actually at our strongest. Why? Because it is at that point that we realize we can't do it all on our own. The greatest part of it is that we never have to. God is always there to lift us up and help us to swim again.
Now many of you are asking..."Why do we have to go through it in the first place?" I have found in my years of ministry that crisis teaches us lessons and requires us to practice our faith. If everything went smoothly all the time we would start to believe that we are actually strong enough to go through life without help...without God. That isn't the case.
That day in the pool I never took my eyes off my little girl. When she was weak she could depend on my strength to help her find her way to safety. When we are weak...we have to depend on God's strength to help us. It is then that we realize His power and His grace in our lives.
See you tomorrow,
Pastor Brian
1 comment:
I have just recently learned to look for the reason... or the lesson when I face adversity.... I realize that... God uses these moments to teach me... and I start to try and figure out what it is that He is teaching. I know this sounds weird... but difficulties have in a way become a comfort to me... a reminder that God is actively at work in my life... molding me and teaching me like a parent does a child.
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