Treading water sounds tiring.

As a person who enjoys a good “float” as opposed to actually swimming, treading water seems like alot of effort to go nowhere.

When I did a simple Google search on the subject, I found that treading water is considered a great exercise.

Working hard to go nowhere is a super calorie burning, weight loss achieving, low -impact -so -less -joint damage occurs, muscle strengthening activity…

Interesting….and still sounds exhausting.

Have you ever had to tread water?

A sweet teenager told me she had to do it for 2 minutes before getting the hard-earned, all-important “deep end” wrist band at a camp.

2 minutes of keeping herself afloat while not going anywhere– because THAT, of course, would be called swimming and being able to swim apparently does not mean you could survive in the deep end if necessary.

Let me get this straight: the power needed for the breast stroke, the balance required for the back stroke, the essential air capacity in underwater swimming are all unequal to life saving when compared to treading water.

Going nowhere sounds nuts; but it gets you into the deep end??

I pause here to reflect on that…

There has to be something to treading water for it to be so overall beneficial, right?

Apparently, it strengthens me without straining me.

In our faith walk we are usually in a state of motion- either we feel we are growing in our faith (moving forward) or we have slidden back (moved backward or away from God/faith).

We have all heard of plateau’s in a weight loss journey and have also had the same analogy applied to faith too…there are those frustrating times in both where we feel we are stagnant, in a valley, wandering the wilderness…in a time where progress does not seem to be made and we are going nowhere.

In weight loss, this is the time most people quit. The massive frustration a person feels when “doing everything right but nothing seems to be happening” is excruciating.

I think our faith life can be the same.

We go to church, we tithe, we read our Bibles, we pray (sorta), we listen to Jesus music often, we hang out with church-folk…we do what we always did but the result just is not the same.

Lately, I find I am distracted and that is seriously affecting me spiritually.

Frankly, the brokenness of this world has impacted me on so many sides that I feel like I now have spiritual ADHD.

The intensity and passion in my time with the Lord has waned due to battle fatigue.

However, I keep doing what I have always done..trying to hang on and stay the course…searching for that zeal that had consumed me in the past. I see glimpses of it, go to reach for it, and get T-boned in my effort by something else.

Therefore, I feel like I am staying still with zero forward motion…but my efforts are also keeping me from moving backward.

I seem to stay still. For months now.

I. Am. Treading. Water.

Biblical water analogies are fantastic- waves crashing over you with some small or big like situations, walking on water with our eyes on Christ, keeping your eyes above the waves so you don’t go under….

I feel connected to the refreshing power and cleansing ability of water so this subject makes sense to me.

Am I gaining strength in my efforts without being strained?

It is a perspective I have not processed before as all I see is the lack of progress.

But what I am doing is treading water with this motivation in mind:

Stay the course.

Keep moving while not going out of my way to get hurt needlessly (the theory of “no pain no gain” does not appeal to me).

Breathe steady, deep, and calm.

Stay focused.

Do not look too far ahead or behind (the edge of the pool in front of me, out of reach, seems far away: which is frustrating if that is what I am focused on- the purpose is NOT the edge of the pool but the action of treading water…ugh. That’s deep and I don’t like that revelation.)

Do not panic.

Continue doing what it is you know to do.

Trust that those “2 minutes” will be up and the deep-end wrist band will have been earned.

You do know that, to God, a day is like 10,000 years right? His “2 minutes” could last a while…

Imagine the strength gained…