Written By: Zane Miller | CSUS Outreach Coordinator
Photo By: Zane Miller | CS Outreach Coordinator
A few years ago, I was trying to push my surfing and water photography in bigger waves and had a few close calls. I realized that even though I was in decent shape, I hadn’t trained my body or my mind to handle big surf conditions. Staying calm while getting pounded on an Indonesian reef is a much different skill than running a fast forty-yard dash or hitting PRs in the gym.
A friend of mine invited me to a workout at a local pool designed to train these very skills. For example, we would swim a fifty-yard freestyle and then immediately dive to the bottom, pick up a pair of thirty-five-pound dumbbells, and walk twenty-five yards across the bottom of the pool while our heart rates spiked. At first, it felt nearly impossible. But the more I practiced, the more manageable the exercise became, and the greater my tolerance for heavy surf grew.
Some seasons of life can feel like being caught in conditions that are beyond our abilities. Financial hardship, conflict, physical ailments, mental health struggles, and the loss of loved ones can take our breath away and make us wonder if we can survive if there’s another wave in the set. Thankfully, we can prepare our hearts and minds for these seasons, not by training our breath holds, but by remaining in God’s Word, which equips us for every season of life.
Paul writes to Timothy: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17)
When life takes our breath away, God gives us His God-breathed Word. Scripture does not promise that we will never be knocked down, frightened, or overwhelmed. It does not teach us to pretend that the waves are smaller than they really are. Instead, God’s Word directs us to something stronger than our circumstances: His faithfulness.
Through Scripture, God reminds us that we are not abandoned in the storm. He exposes the false places where we have put our trust, corrects the lies fear tells us, and trains us to cling to what is true. Most importantly, His Word continually points us to Jesus. The One who entered into our suffering, carried our sin on the cross, rose from the grave, and promises us that He will always be by our sides and take us with Him into eternity.
Our confidence, then, is not that we have trained ourselves to withstand anything life can throw at us. Our confidence is that Christ has already overcome sin and death, and that nothing can separate us from His love.
The time to prepare for heavy surf is not when you are already being held underwater. Similarly, the time to become rooted in God’s promises is not only when a crisis arrives. We go to Scripture daily so that when life becomes disorienting, we know the voice of our Lord. The waves may be greater than your strength, but can never be greater than your Savior.