Wave Pool Mentality

Tonight I was thinking you know when we go through tough times some times we forget who is in control… Maybe I shouldn’t say we maybe I should say me I have this problem if I get faced with a problem that seems like it could be very difficult to make it through I have a tendency to start trying to fix things…

My mind starts to rationalize it starts to just run wild with how I can do this to accomplish that… I am immediately thrown into “survivor” mode … in that moment that I get challenged that I face even the smallest of difficulty my instinct is to rationalize it out…

I start thinking ok… I am a good Christian I pay my tithes, I love GOD, I listen to the voices of leadership GOD has put in my life, I study The Word, I make GOD time a priority… Then I get the hard one I trust GOD he is in control… you guys even while the words roll off my lips I know in my head I am not acting like it and I start trying to figure out how to get my situation into control…

Several years ago I visited a water park with my son and husband… They are the adventurers of our family and so they were off to ride all the rides and slide all the slides I am a bit less adventurous and made my way to the wave pool… when I got into this wave pool I thought I’ll wade out a little ways and just relax waiting on the rest of my group to come back from their adventures….

So I get out in the middle of the wave pool and I am like wow its not quite as relaxing as I thought people started to crowd in and the waves were really kicking up and I am trying my best to keep myself steady and not float/bump into someone the more I tried to keep my feet anchored the more I seemed to get pushed around… realizing I was fighting a losing battle and being a loner in the pool I decided I better move to a little more shallow water so I could get control… you know it is different if the people you bump into are the ones who chose you forever or the ones you actually incubated until they were born but when you start hitting people who you don’t know you know it is time to move to more shallow water and get a grip on what’s happening…

Well in all my infinite wisdom I moved to the more shallow end of the wave pool and we are talking just a few inches of water and I think I will just sit down then I won’t get knocked into anyone… well I sat down and shortly after the waves start again and all of a sudden I am slammed to one side and I think wow I wasn’t expecting that one and then the next thing you know I am pushed back over after sitting up and I thought well my goodness I move from bumping into people I don’t know to not even being able to sit up in the water because I am getting knocked around…

It never occurred to me if I would walk back out into waist deep water and pick up my feet I would move with the wave… I would glide the same direction as the others around me and even though I wouldn’t have control I wouldn’t run into any one or have a major collision I couldn’t handle because the gentle ebb and flow of the water was established and I didn’t have to control my movements I just had to pick up my feet and move with the water…

It occurred to me in that moment that walking with GOD in Faith is much like this wave pool we often are faced with difficulty that seems like if we could just get enough information we could control it we could make sense of it we could make sure the outcome was good… We get in the middle of that problem that mess and then we fight to keep our feet planted our “control” of what’s happening so hard we end up running into others sometimes the people we know sometimes people we don’t… we move with force we get desperate… All of a sudden we are in the middle of chaos trying to figure out how to just sit up how to quit getting knocked around by the things happening in our life…Maybe we scale back our intentions we shave off parts of our dream that now seem unattainable… we move to shallow water and just trying to sit down.

See the control we are chasing the assurance that what is about to happen next is something we can handle starts to make us forget what we are promised… what we do know… is that GOD is victorious in all battles that nothing can defeat our GOD… that no weapon formed against us can prosper… that he never leaves us … What we know is who wins… what we know is that GOD ALWAYS WINS

What we don’t know is how he wins… what we didn’t realize is that sometimes winning feels like losing… what we cant be certain of is the battle strategy… what happens when we try to know these things be certain of them is we end up hurt, broken, confused, angry, sad and bitter…

So what do we do when we get scared… what do we do when the battle looks like and feels like we have to know we have to understand how to make it through it… We pick up our feet move with wave…

I am not the kind of person to leave a thought in that hypothetical not realistic to my situation perfectly poetic spot I will tell you the strategy that I use to remind myself to “Pick up my feet, and Move with the Wave” … so the first thing I do is I say out loud all the fears I am afraid to acknowledge I just get them out… The very worst way I can lose my battle I just say it out loud… Then I remind myself what “GOD” says that the battle is his… Once I say it out loud I stop and say ok GOD I just told myself how bad it can be I need your help to give me reminders that you are in control and even though I don’t know how we are going to get there I trust you… Sometimes … ok almost every single time I have to say out loud in an audible voice God I have no idea what your doing but you have my yes and it is ok that I don’t know… Sometimes I have to say it more than once…

More recently I have started audibly remind myself to “pick up my feet, and move with the waves” …

If you facing a battle that seems bigger than you have the wisdom to think out I challenge you tonight to pick up your feet and move with the wave… I challenge you to trust GOD that he won’t leave you and that he will WIN and all you have to do is know he will WIN and show up even if your scared … Just tell him GOD help me pick up my feet quit trying to control this situation and just move with the wave with the assurance that I don’t have to know the battle strategy I just have to know YOU WILL WIN!