Are You in Over Your Head? - The Warrior's Journey®
Helplessness

Are You in Over Your Head?

Author: David Causey, USA (Ret.)

U.S. Navy Sailors swim with Sri Lanka navy divers.. Photo by Navy is licensed under CC By 2.0

Every parent has had this experience.

You’re holding your child while wading in the water. As you enter deeper water, and it touches your child’s toes, your child suddenly clings tight to you.

When my daughter Laura was just 2 or 3 years old, I held her and waded into the pool at a motel. We began at the shallow end of the pool and walked toward the deep end. She was calm and confident until the water touched her toes – then she clamped onto me like a little leech. As we walked further and further into the deep end of the pool, she clung tighter and tighter to me.

I tried to re-assure her, “Everything’s OK. I’ve got you. I won’t let you go.”

But it was to no avail. The water was touching her toes, then her waist, then her shoulders and that was too far. So I did an about face and brought her out of the water.

We are always in over our heads. There is no time when God does not hold our life and breath in his hands.

I’ve reflected on those times and wondered, “Did it ever occur to Laura that she was in ‘over her head’ at every point in that pool?” My daughter was less than three feet tall, too small for even the shallowest point. Yet she only sensed her need to hang onto daddy when the water touched her. In reality, she was as dependent upon me at the 3-foot mark, as at the 5-foot mark. At the same time, at no point was the water over my head.

This applies to all of us as God’s children. When we trust in our Heavenly Father, we are safe in His almighty arms. But we have this mistaken notion that we need Him more in times of trial and less in times of joy and prosperity. The reality is – we need Him every hour.

Like the little child, we are always, always “in over our heads.” Early in our faith walk, we naively assume that God will never allow the “water to touch us” – i.e. God will never let trouble break into our lives. But He does. He takes us deeper, and the water touches our toes.

Sensing the “crisis,” we cry out to Him, “Oh God, save me; deliver me from death!”

But He takes us deeper, and the water envelops us more until it reaches our waist. Never before, have we sensed our need for our heavenly Father. Never have we clung so close to the Savior. Then He takes us even deeper until the water reaches our shoulders.

“Do not forsake me, Oh Lord. Save me, I pray.”

nterior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Zach O’Dell practices rescue techniques.Then, the Lord brings us back to where it’s “safer.” And we, thinking we’re “in the clear,” let go of God, assuming our need for him is not as great. Yet if God were to drop us at that point—we would perish, just as surely as if we were in the deepest waters. Because we are always in over our heads. There is no time when God does not hold our life and breath in His hands. But there will never be a time when God is in over His head. Nor will he ever drop us. No loving parent would ever do so. Are we to expect less from God?

Consider the words of Scripture that say, “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old,” (Isa. 63:9, NKJV). Trust in God and He will carry you, and there will truly never be a crisis in your life. Ignore and reject Him, and all of life will be a crisis, whether you know it or not.

There will never be a time when God is in over His head.

PRAYER:

Dear Father in heaven, help me to understand Your love for me. Your power to save me. And Your ability to protect me. Help me to rest peacefully in Your arms. Amen.


In article photo: nterior[sic] Communications Electrician 3rd Class Zach O’Dell practices rescue techniques. by the U.S. Navy licensed by U.S. Govt. Work

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