Good morning…

“I haven’t had a chance to tell you that I passed along to my sister Betty Skinner’s story captured in The Hidden Life (complete with my notes and highlights). She divorced this year after over 30 years of marriage. In a recent letter (on paper, with a stamp and everything!) she said, ‘I feel like you have thrown me a life jacket.’ This description gave me such peace, relief, sadness, and everything in between. I can’t tell you the gratitude I feel for our class — for your wisdom, words, and guidance. It has been the greatest gift I have given to myself. Clearly, when we are able to pass it on, it comes back to us ten-fold!” Reading this kind email from one of my Bible study regulars, my mind zeroes in on the phrase “life jacket.”

A life jacket is an inflatable sleeveless jacket worn to keep a person afloat when in danger of drowning. A life buoy. A life saver. A life preserver.

We and our loved ones often face the danger of drowning, of bobbing under life’s stress and not bobbing back up. The end of a 30 year marriage. The death of a child. The sticky web of addiction. With water rising deep and high, it is tough to keep afloat. Unemployment. Financial strains. Anxiety laced with depression. Sometimes we struggle overwhelmed, gasping for air. Abuse. Betrayal. Pleasing others but not loving ourselves. We yearn for peace, but we are swamped with pain.
God throws us a life jacket in many forms. Maybe it is a book like The Hidden Life. For Betty Skinner, her life was preserved by Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea, Henry Drummond’s The Greatest Thing in the World, Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, and the contemplative writings of the desert fathers and mothers. Maybe it is the companionship of a survivor who was where we are and made it safely to shore. Could it be the constant prayers of our loved ones keeping us afloat? Might it be our private study of the Bible or a weekly class discussion filling our sleeveless state with the breath of the Holy Spirit? Walking in wonder through God’s creation, watching winter transition to spring. Talking with close friends who hear our hurting heart. Giving our self the gift of quiet time, into our silence God speaks and consoles.

Waking to a brand new day, we ask ourselves a few key questions:

“Who in my life is in danger of drowning, emotionally or spiritually?”
“What life jacket might I share today to help support their survival?”
“In what areas of my life am I bobbing under, gasping for breath?”
“What life preserver is God inflating for me right now?”

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm, Mark 4:37-39 (NIV),

Sue