“The swimmer adrift on the open seas measures his strength, and strives with all his muscles to keep himself afloat. But what is he to do when there is no land on the horizon, and none beyond it?” ~ Georges Duhamel
There are times in our lives when we feel adrift. That is a hopeless feeling, an awful feeling. It causes great anxiety for those who experience it. They find it hard to focus and generally fear asking for help because they do not want to risk rejection.
I have cruised on the open ocean a few times now. Taking a transatlantic cruise, there is a period of five to seven days, depending upon the course that has been laid out for the captain, where no land is sighted, no birds are seen, nor are any ships noted. It is just you and the vast, boundless ocean. Surrounded by nothing but water as far as the eye can see makes a person feel quite small.
If someone were swimming in that same water, it would also make a person feel quite helpless and hopeless. How can one long survive if there does not appear to be any means of escape? How can one long survive if there does not appear to be any destination? It becomes too easy, at those times, to give up hope.
I remember a professor, one day, talking about the difference between loneliness and being alone. He said that one was a state of mind and the other was a state of fact. When we are alone, there is no one around us. When we are lonely, we might be surround by a throng of people but fail to recognize any of them because of the state of mind in which we are in.
Feeling adrift, being lonely in the midst of a bustling world, is a reality that hits all of us at one time or another in our lives. It is in those times that we need to reach for our life jacket, our preserver, if you will, in order to make sure that we do not drown. That preserver is none other than the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Never lose sight of where you keep that life jacket. It should always be handy. And it will be handy if we perform some regular daily functions such as prayer. Praying maintains our relationship with God. If we keep grounded in prayer, we will never have to worry about being adrift because He will always be at our side, even in the middle of an ocean where we are swimming with no land in sight.
FAITH ACTION: Make sure that you ground yourself in prayer today so that you do not feel as if you are adrift without a purpose, a goal, or hope of help.