In times like this we can feel like we are caught in a negative rip tide, carried away by a strong current we can’t fight. Disease, political instability, and the fact that many businesses are struggling create a negative current that carries us out to a dangerous, hopeless sea. At the same time, God gives us a strategy for moving out of spiritual rip tides into the gentle, restorative currents of heaven and back to solid ground.
One thing you learn when caught in rip tides is that you don’t try to fight the current and swim back to the shore. If you do, you wear yourself out. If you wait and do nothing, the current will take you further and further out to sea. So far, in fact, you may never be able to get back to shore in your own strength. The best way to get out of a rip tide is to swim to the side, along the shore until you swim out of it. Then, you can more easily swim back to land.
In the same way, overcoming the rip tides of this world don’t come by directly fighting against the tides. Overcoming also does not happen by passively sitting in the destructive current as it takes you further away from shore.
Our human logic thinks we only have two choices, to fight or to go with the flow. God always has another alternative. Our third choice is the one that moves us out of danger and gives us a different way of seeing things.
The Warrior Commission takes the time to train in this process. We learn to find God’s options of how to swim closer to Him and out of the rip tides of life. We learn how to more closely partner with what He is doing and better understand His view.
It’s this new way of seeing through God’s eyes and heart, that allows us to go to His safe shore and be grounded in Him. His way of seeing things is always greater and different than our normal approach. We find we are not drained or exhausted. We are able to remove ourselves from the rip tides of this world and find a different way to abide, rest in, Him.
If you find yourself caught in a destructive current, know you have another option. Swim out of the current toward the Lord. As you rest in Him, He will restore the hope you have and return you to the solid ground of His heart.
