He Rescues Us
While sitting on the pool deck in between shifts I would meditate on the verse: "He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me" 2 Samuel 22:20 [NIV]
For all of us there are times of joy, but there are also times when, like David, we may feel like we are swimming against the tide or drowning; I had to smile as I looked at the life ring at the side of the pool, described in the dictionary as a 'lifebuoy, ring buoy, life preserver is a life-saving buoy designed to be thrown to a person in the water, to provide buoyancy and prevent drowning.'
I have learnt much from the warm people here in Benin, just as I did in Mozambique, even in the most difficult of circumstances and abject poverty they have a 'buoyant' joy which is truly humbling.
When the going gets tough we're left with seemingly nothing to do but throw our hands up for help, in doing this God finds the perfect excuse to take hold of them with His. We might not know what to say or do, but when we cry out to Him, He hears us and, at the given time, grabs our hands and pull us out of the water that we may feel ourselves sinking deeper and deeper into and takes us to a safe place. He doesn't just plop us down on the edge because of the heavy baggage we carry, he takes us to a spacious place; not where hopelessness lives, but where rescue is.
The Son of Man did not come to seek and save the "fine, the sorted and the smiling". We need to trust our brothers and sisters in Christ with the truth about how we are doing—how we're really doing. That doesn't mean we need to tell everyone all that is going on in our lives but when we confide in others, it is a place of progress, not perfection.
"A sorrow shared is but half a trouble, but a joy that's shared is a joy made double." Old proverb.
Dawn Milward
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