My first experience with water skiing came at the age of twenty-four. All of my focus was on getting up on those skis. On the second try, I got up for a brief second before I face-planted and a rush of brown lake water was sent up my nose. On the third attempt I kept the tension just right to bring my body out of the water. As my body fully emerged, I leaned back just a bit and found the slot. I did it! I was water skiing.
Then it dawned on me. I had spent all my energy and …focus on my entrance strategy and had invested zero time considering my exit strategy. I had no idea how to end this experience. Fear overtook me. Thoughts of my falling body skipping across the water like a smooth stone came to mind. So, I held on for dear life as the boat continued circling the small lake. My hands and legs were cramping. How was this going to end? It had to end. I couldn’t hold on forever.
[Then, the guys in the boat] screamed at the top of their lungs, “Let go of the rope!”
Let go of the rope? They must be insane. So, I doubled down on my grip and kept skiing, completely unsure of how it was all eventually going to end.
Life is so often like my water-skiing adventure. We use all of our energy getting up and staying up but don’t have an exit strategy. We know we can’t continue the ride forever in this body — it will eventually give out — but, because we don’t know how the ride ends and fear it will hurt, we hold on for dear life.
What is the exit strategy for the Christian? The Bible has so much to say about this that will calm your nerves, loosen your death grip on life and give you hope. Consider the words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthian believers –
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1
Daily our bodies are wasting away. Can I get an “amen”? But as we grow in Christ, Paul says, our spirits can actually get stronger. [And] no matter how awful our circumstances become, we know this is not how our story ends. We will receive relief from our grief one day. Whenever it is time for you to let go of the rope of life, you will discover that everything will be just fine. No, not fine…better than ever.
Excerpts from Devotionals Daily by Randy Frazee
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