My daughter came in last night, laughing as she related how a little girl that she was babysitting described her inevitable plight. She stated, with a pathetic little sigh, that “with all the cancer and heart disease and diabetes that runs in my family, I’m much more likely to get knocked off by that before I get a chance to get old.” At the age of ten, she has already weighed her mortality in the scales of longevity and determined them to be lacking!
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| "...we must swim in the waters around us." |
Of course, we all shared in the laughter but I think this is similar to the way we view our life and it’s circumstances. Like we’ve lost the game before we start playing. Like we’ve been "given a time” before the doctor calls. Like we’ve failed before the results are in.
Our typical answer to this is wishing we could live in other circumstances. If we could, we would kick out cancer and heart disease and diabetes. We’d also get rid of the flu and chicken pox and measles. And while we’re at it we’d knock out mortgage payments and hydro bills and marriage problems and job layoffs and church issues and family issues and sibling rivalry and jealousy and…
But, alas, we cannot. As Kevin deYoung, in his book Crazy Busy states, “Everyone has to live somewhere and we must swim in the waters around us.” I can be discouraged with my place, but I don't get to swim in anyone else's waters. I can only swim in the waters that are around me. This is why one of my favorite Scriptures is found in Deuteronomy 33:25, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”
So... I may not have control over my circumstance, but this I know: The waters around me are no match for the Strength that is IN me.
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