The laboring woman knows how the pain comes in waves. She knows the transcendent way they wash over—wash through—her. She knows they bear tidings of gift and soon the gift itself.

Yet the way they come! Such tumult at times that stirs the blood to one of two things: Wild trust or wild fear. Two, so same and so different all at once, it could make us wonder how both are options from one deciding point. But it’s true. Trying to ride somewhere in between gives you a batterring. I know.

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I took this photo below a pier on the Atlantic Ocean after spending time above it speaking with local fisherman who were hooking black tipped sharks that day and many days in recent times. Several of my own children saw them swimming close to shore and we listened and watched as the lifeguard called everyone in. But a later conversation revealed that the lifeguard wasn’t as worried about the sharks as he was losing a swimmer to a rip current.

I was surprised to learn rip currents are the leading cause for rescues by lifeguards. It’s not the same as an undertow, a rip is a swift current that will quickly carry objects or people outside the zone of the breaking waves. To survive the idea is DO NOT fight it. Sounds familiar, right?

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Another true story—full of mystery and wonder, reality and frightfullness, instruction and life.

I’m always asking as I watch these stories unfold, how do I live?! How do I ride those waves? How do I trust? Sometimes In labor I screamed through the contractions, at others I groaned—whichever it took to find my way through, to remember how to relax again.

“There’s so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see, but everywhere I go I’m looking.” -Richard Wayne Mullins

I’m like you with my own torn and broken heart gasping for oxygen, let alone song, but often resembling something more like choking. We’re choking on disappointment that threatens to steal our voices pressuring us to give way to their anthem, “Life isn’t all that”. Choking on grief and our own blood from the backstabbing from the people who were suppose to “have your back”.

Does looking for beauty, learning to relax, or experiencing the wave without fear of sharks or rip currents a denial of reality? Does trusting the faithful law of floating in the midst of suffering a denial of reality or the truest perception of it? I say the latter! And I’ve experienced it too.

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What else is true though? I need constant reminding, and for some reason, that’s the design. We need to hear the song again, then we start singing along—again. A big part of why I’m writing here every week is for me, and for you, to remember the songs of joy we know deep in, eternity set within.

Lies and grief want to bury live bodies and steal the inheritance. I’m believing with you today that it matters that we don’t let that happen, not to ourselves and not for those we love.

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We must remember to relax when the waves come, and we must lend strength and remembrance when we see each other flailing. Sometimes, it will look like screaming (for help) others times groaning quietly from spirit to Spirit. But whatever we do, don’t give up, don’t. give. up. Maybe to us, trying not to drown in loss, loneliness, guilt or fears, it sounds more like a choke but I believe He hears a song, He’s writing a song.

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Remember the waves bear gift. Looking to the Author and Finisher with you today,

Raynna

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