When You’ve Almost Drown

In deep waters, You carry me.
Out of land-locked lakes, You call me.
As storms rage, You protect me.
Again and again my life is sustained in the ocean of your love.

When land’s not seen, teach me to trust and even enjoy.
Take me deeper than I think I can go, and my faith will be enlarged.
Baptize me and overflow me with the water of your Spirit.
You’re the Commander of the sea, and Captain of my soul. (JHP)

Fear of drowning

There are people so fearful of water that they never venture into the ocean, or any other body of water. They see the waves and hear the surf, and anxiety grips them. But they have a good reason.

When you’ve almost drowned, you fear being in water, especially water that’s over your head. You lack confidence. You panic easily. The moment your feet can’t touch the bottom and you feel the pull of currents, your mind tells you that you’re going to drown, again.

There are ways of mastering the fear of water. Swim instructors teach people who are fearful of water how they must yield to the water and use their body’s natural buoyancy. Lifeguards tell people not to fight against riptides and currents but to swim at angles through them.

Dealing with fear of the deep

Fear and panic that stems from any prior bad experience can be crippling. There are situations so horrible that they almost suffocate the life out of you. You may still be alive, but you avoid anything and anyone that even comes close making you feel vulnerable again.

You know God has rescued you from deep waters in your life. You felt as if you were going under, but God has brought you out. Yet, now you sense his gentle push back into the deep. You don’t want to go, but it’s actually in the deep places that God will strengthen your faith and teach you things about Him and yourself that you could never learn on the shore.

As the tides, waves, currents, and storms come into your life, learn that God is sustaining you and keeping you. Discover that you were actually meant to be in the deep oceans of life so that you can help others who are like you once were, struggling, filled with fear and panic. They’re drowning and time’s running out. But you now know Who and what will help them, and He’s reaching through you to them.

God’s the Commander of the sea, and the Captain of your soul. When land’s not seen, you’ll learn to trust and even enjoy it. Bon voyage!