Just Keep Swimming

Scratchy throats necessitate hot drinks at all hours and soup for every meal. Isn't that some sort of ancient truism? Let's stitch it on a pillow, shall we?

Today is rainy (again). Maybe I am only able to carve out time to type out some semblance of coherency on rainy days. Either way, the rain is falling and my baby is stirring for stage one of his Great Nap Boycott and I am choosing to not organize the kids' closets or fold laundry. Instead, here I sit.

My heart has been heavy lately. I'm thinking I must be a big Feeler because I seem to be carrying burdens for several friends. Friends with addictions that won't let go. Friends with illnesses that don't seem to end. Friends with empty wombs. Friends with broken marriages. These are all real stories that are communicated to me over a tiny Starbucks table or behind swinging toddlers at the park. All heavy burdens that I am called to share. And another weight is stacked onto my heart.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the Christian life lately. Galatians 6 calls for us to carry one another's burdens, and these burdens can be heavy. It can feel as if we are drowning, slipping deeper into dark waters, begging for Jesus to just come back and end it all.


It's in these moments that I force myself to come up, take a breath, and look around. I need the air. I need the breather. I need the break from the muscle strain. Yet, the breath is not an escape from the swim. The breath is not an opportunity to mindlessly numb myself and forget about how hard swimming is... it is an opportunity to refuel so that I then can continue to swim. 


So, I come up for air. I look around. I try and get a birds' eye view of the picture of what God is accomplishing. Let's look for victories in this life that can seem so despairing. Let's be reminded of truth in His Word and let's seek encouragement from fellow pilgrims on this journey. Take a breath. And dive back in.

This journey we are on is slow, arduous, and (at times) difficult. It isn't meant to be easy, yet Christ promises our souls rest if we take His burden, which is easy and light, and give Him ours. That. That is the breath we take so that we may continue the journey, the swim.

Things may feel heavy in your life right now. And, if they don't, they will soon. Because life is a struggle. If this is your situation, I implore you to come up for air. Take a breath. Consult your community. Meditate on God's word. Then... take that breath as strength to go on! Keep swimming. Keep journeying. Paul's imprisonment, as he says in Philippians 1, served to embolden his fellow Christians. It is, as we are told so frequently in the epistles, a privilege to suffer. So, suffer well, pilgrim. Embolden your siblings in Christ. And, as Dorie says, "just keep swimming."
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