Float, Don't Fight
Break the grip of spiritual rip currents.
He says, “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God. I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!” —Psalm 46:10
If you have ever stood on the shore and looked out at the ocean, you know how quickly its beauty can mask an immense, hidden power. One of the greatest dangers a swimmer can face is a rip current—a strong, narrow channel of fast-moving water that cuts through the surf and pulls away from the beach.
When caught in a rip current, the human instinct is immediate and fierce: fight. We think that if we just swim harder, faster, and straight back to the shore, we can overpower the current. But human strength is no match for the ocean. Swimming directly against a rip current quickly leaves a person exhausted and depleted. The water doesn’t tire; the swimmer does.
Several years ago, a mother created a counterintuitive campaign for survival, following the rip current associated death of her child. She publicly provided the following rip current safety tip: Float, don’t fight.
To survive a rip current, you have to do the hardest thing for a panicking mind to accept: you must stop thrashing. You have to roll onto your back, lift your chin, and let the current carry you out. You don’t try to master the water; you yield to it. Only when you stop fighting the pull can you conserve your energy, assess the situation, and calmly swim parallel to the shore to escape the rip current.
Spiritual Rip Currents
We often treat the seasons of life like an ocean current we are desperate to overpower. When a sudden diagnosis, a financial strain, a broken relationship, or an unexpected detour pulls us away from our comfortable “shoreline,” our immediate instinct is to thrash. We exhaust ourselves trying to fix, manipulate, and force our way back to our own version of safety. This creates anxiety, leaving us spiritually drained.
But like the mother who created the safety campaign, Scripture calls us to a counterintuitive strategy: surrender.
Surrendering to God’s will is not giving up or failing; it is floating. It is the conscious decision to stop fighting the reality of your current circumstances and instead trust the sovereign power of the One who rules the waves. Surrender removes the burden of outcomes and aligns your heart with God’s will.
Striving relies on human effort while thriving relies on surrender.
Apply this by identifying one situation in your life right now where you are thrashing the hardest. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and mentally “flip onto your back.” Say out loud: “I will stop fighting this. Lord, I trust Your current. I am floating in Your will today.”
Prayer: Lord, I have been swimming frantically against a current I cannot control, trying to force my own way back to safety. I am exhausted and battered from the fight. Today, I choose to float, not fight. I surrender to Your will. Amen.