How Finding Our Breath Comes in the Deep

Published at Family Christian.

The wind gusts cleared thousands of orange pine needles from our row of trees and deposited most of them onto our pool. As this rust-colored carpet floated on the surface, shape-shifting in the wind, my husband lamented that the sideways rain kept him from skimming the needles out of the water. I enjoyed watching them float from one end to the other, pinching in and spreading out, creating shapes like clouds as they moved from side to side. But my husband knew that once these fine four-inch needles dipped below the surface, they would be harder to remove.

And I think the same is true of us. Floating along doesn’t ground us. It’s the sinking deep that holds us in.

But sinking deep is daunting. It’s hard to imagine how going deeper with God leads to greater peace. The barrages we face are real, hard, and scary.

Even in pain, sometimes staying on the surface feels more comfortable. Sometimes, it’s simpler to live in the “I’m fine” places. I’d rather focus on tasks and schedules, leaving the fears, worries and pain over there for later. Because I just want to catch my breath.

But maybe our fatigue is greater because we choose to drift on the surface.

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