Drowning.

When I was seven I fell off a floating raft into my babysitter's pool. I didn't know how to swim, not even a doggy paddle. With arms stretched towards the surface above me and eyes wide open, I instinctively held my breath. Within moments my babysitter dove in after me and pulled me to safety.

Have you ever felt like you are drowning? We use the expression most often when we are overwhelmed, overworked or simply in over our heads.

Drowning. Eyes wide open, lacking air, watching the surface disappear as we sink deeper and deeper down. Drowning. Unable to even tread water.

Job, more so than any other human in history, must have felt this way to a degree I shudder to imagine.

In Job 3: 20- 26, he laments

^“20 Why is light given to those in misery,
and life to the bitter of soul,

²¹ to those who long for death that does not come,
who search for it more than for hidden treasure,

²² who are filled with gladness
and rejoice when they reach the grave?

²³ Why is life given to a man
whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?

²⁴ For sighing has become my daily food;
my groans pour out like water.

²⁵ What I feared has come upon me;
what I dreaded has happened to me.

²⁶ I have no peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Job's life was thrown into utter turmoil. He lost everything to the point he longs to die. He curses the day he was born, he says his anguish and misery would out weigh the sands of the seas. He cries out to God over and over. Still through all the calamity that is brought upon him he never stops fearing the Lord. In the end of Job we find that God blesses Job with even more than he had before.

It's when I can't swim, when there's no emotional, mental, physical energy to pull my own head above water that I realize an important fact. I need a Savior.

We were created to walk in the garden with God. We weren't created to work like crazy, take on a million commitments, run ourselves ragged and into exhaustion. Our toil and turmoil is a result of the fall and sin in the world. Which again points to our need for a Savior.

Matthew 11:28-30, says "²⁸ Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Psalm 46: 1-7

^“1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
⁷ The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

John 16: 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Psalm 121

^“1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? 
² My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. 
³ He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; 
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
⁵ The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 
⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; 
⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

Look up. We have a Savior who will pull us safely to the surface.