Life Jacket

You are in a boat, calmly sailing in the warm sun. A cool breeze grasps a wisp of your hair and tickles your cheek. A gentle wave splashes upon the side of the boat, leaving a drop of water to play tag with your leg. You are on a smooth ride and have not a care in the world. Life is good, and you begin to doze off in relaxation.

Without notice or warning, storm clouds suddenly begin to suffocate the sunlight and attempt to steal your warmth. A frigid air races to your bare skin in hopes to create a chill that will run through your bones. Life is not o-kay anymore. The waves violently grow higher, smashing against your boat, and tearing your foundation apart...

Somewhere amidst your dozing off and relaxing, a storm began to brew that you didn't see. It snuck up behind you and violated your safe and smooth sailing. Not sure why you didn't see it coming, but suddenly, your boat sat in the middle of a mine field.

...Pieces of your boat are floating away from you. You grab a life jacket from under a seat, put it on, and hold on for dear life. The problem is that everything you reach for is being ripped away by the storm's raging winds. You grab the side of the boat, but it too is being ripped from your hand. Rain pounds from the sky, screaming turmoil as it whizzes by, and shreds your boat to pieces.

You find yourself drowning in astonishment, fear, shock, and despair, as the storm quickly passes on to its next destination. The quick-tempered fury is gone. Like a torpedo on a mission, it blazes by on command without repentance, without apology, and without volunteers to help clear the demolished area.

You open your eyes, glance around, and see mass destruction. The boat you once found safe and secure is shattered and now only slivers of its remembrance remain floating in the waters around you. You grasp for a piece of wood passing by you, only to have it disintegrate in your palm.

Besides the wreckage around you, the atmosphere doesn't indicate a storm just came through. The waters are calm, and a rainbow appears in the sky. You float in an exhausted daze, trying to wake yourself up from a bad dream...only it wasn't a dream. Your life was just shipwrecked...without notice...without cause...the world must still spin in orbit...yet you quietly stare at the debris and the wreckage, somehow knowing that your life will never be the same again.

You close your eyes, too tired to even go on, and lay lifeless on the only thing that got you through the storm: your life jacket.

For this moment, you wish you would have died in that storm, but this too shall pass, and you will soon see the significance behind the one thing the storm couldn't take away: your life jacket.

One day, you will find meaning again, reflect back, and be grateful for the one thing that kept you afloat: your life jacket.

In the many storms that pass through your life, you have the option of putting on a life jacket to protect you from drowning. That life jacket is God!!! When everything else feels like it's slipping from your grasp, God is the one who will never leave you.

For when you no longer can hang on by yourself, it is God who is hanging on for you. Picture this: Once a life jacket is snapped into place securely around you, can you let go and still float??? Yes...Why??? Because it is job of the life jacket to float for you.

So the next time the clouds start rolling in and your boat begins to rock, strap on your life jacket tightly and let God carry you through the storm!