How to Sink deep when you are Wrestling with the Distress of this World
I love the ocean; the roar of the waves when the sea is rough or the stillness of the water when it is calm. Amid the breeze and the salty sea air I breathe easily and all I desire is to sink deep.
There are times I walk into the ocean and dive in deep, hands over my head, I jump in head first into a wave and water surrounds me. I go deeper until I can touch the sand on the ocean floor. Abiding at the ocean floor as long as I can hold my breath, my hair floating all around me, I try to stay afloat right above the sand.
I hear nothing; not the waves or the breeze, nor the children playing on the shore or those swimming near. There is only the echo of water in my ears.
In that moment I don't think about anything. I come up for breath only to dive back down again because it is all so serene and peaceful on the ocean floor.
I don't want to come back to the shore to be pushed around by the waves. Complete silence and stillness of the deep call to me.
Be still and know I am God.
In the deep I know he is God.
In the deep I know he is good.
I trust the impossible in his hands.
In the deep there is stillness and peace.
In the deep I know he is God. In the deep I know he is good. I trust the impossible in his hands. In the deep there is stillness and peace.
How can I find stillness above all which disquiets my soul.
I yearn for that stillness everyday, but I wrestle with the disruptions, the disturbances and the distractions.
He whispers into my heart: "Practice stillness beloved. Give me your anxieties and wait for me."
I begin to scribble on a page all my anxious thoughts. The questions I have no answers to, the worries that seem to have no certainties, the fears that overwhelm me. I write furiously and it seems like the words flow from the pen as if the ink is pouring from my heart through my fingertips.
Lord you know my heart, my dreams and desires and all my anxious thoughts. God, you make the caterpillar into a butterly and spring comes forth from winter at your word. You can do all that is impossible. Therefore, you have the power to change everything.
I sink deep and I wait.
Completely spent, I sink deeper still.
Diving deep, silence surrounds me and He envelops me.
I hear nothing but the stillness. That same stillness like in the ocean. Deep and wide is his love for me.
A deep knowing abides in my heart. Knowing he holds all that is impossible; all my desires, all my fears, all my insecurities and not enoughs, my heartaches and all my broken prayers.
I breathe in and break the stillness. Rest finds my mind and soul.
He is good, he does the impossible and he fights for me.
When you are wrestling with the distress of this world and want to sink deep -
Write all your anxieties out. In a journal, on a random sheet of paper or a napkin, take a minute right now and write everything that is burdening you.
Sit in total silence.
Allow God to whisper into your heart.
Breathe in His grace and truth.
“Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me. Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night. My life is God’s prayer.”
