Staying Afloat
It’s November. In just a few months, 2017 will be history. Christmas is just around the corner and there are still too much to do, but I’m running out of steam.
I’m treading water, but just.
Do you ever feel like you’re swimming against the current? The pressures of time, deadlines, checklists, expectations, goals . . . as the days and weeks fly by, we feel smaller as the tasks loom bigger and threaten to wash us ashore.
How do we stay afloat? How do we persevere against the tide?
Micah started swimming lessons on Monday. He was so excited to get into his swimmers and meet his teacher. He smiled the whole time and kept bouncing around in the water.
The first drill he had to learn was blowing bubbles in the water.
I did some googling and found out that proper breathing technique is crucial for good swimming.
When submerged, apparently you’re not supposed to hold your breath but exhale continuously (blowing bubbles through your mouth and nose) so that your lungs can empty properly. Then, when you lift your head, you can get a nice quick inhalation.
Perhaps the reason we feel so overwhelmed this time of year is because we start holding our breath – just trying to make it through another day without that pause to rest and reflect. We push through the weeks without a proper Sabbath. We hold our breath and then try to breathe before our lungs have space to take in oxygen. We rush, rush, rush and then binge play/sleep but don’t feel refreshed.
So it’s time to take a deep breath in. Then exhale by telling God our frustrations, disappointments, and hopes. Let them out, releasing them into the Ocean of God’s grace. Make bubbles.
Then take that quick breath in – that song, that verse, that reassurance – that He is with us, to the end of 2017 certainly and to the end of time itself.
Breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence
Living in me
This is my daily bread
Your very word
Spoken to me
And I, I’m lost without You
Oh Lord, I’m lost without You
I’m lost without You
This is the air I breathe
by: Jinha Kim
"But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14