One Breath at a Time

Are you overwhelmed by your circumstances?

You’ve heard the phrase “throwing in the towel.” When a boxer surrendered the match, he’d throw his towel into the ring and in essence say, “I give up. I acknowledge my defeat. I quit.” Truth be told, looking back over my life, I’m amazed there is a towel left in the cupboard when there’s such a pile in the middle of what feels like my personal boxing ring.

Perhaps everyone at some point has been tempted to yield to the enemy of discouragement. Circumstances overwhelm us. We feel like we are treading water and barely able to keep our head above the waves.  

Been there.

My advice? Breathe.

Forty-five years ago, I was twenty-three. Married, pregnant, mother to a toddler, and abandoned by my husband. Did I mention, without income? For the next thirteen years God remained the lifter of my head. One day at a time. One wave at a time. One breath at a time.

The days were hard, the waves relentless, and many times my breaths came in gasps.

In my ministry to women, I see the same struggle to keep going, to keep praying, to keep trusting, to keep breathing. Their circumstances differ, their challenges vary, but the same discouragement taunts them and threatens to pull them under, to sink them in Bunyan’s slough of despond.

When we don’t see any change, we lose hope. We lose perspective. Our focus narrows.

Voices other than God’s clamor in our head. Some come from within, from our own unbelief in the goodness and wisdom of our loving Father. Some voices come from without, from other people’s opinions. These, too, can leave us shipwrecked, wavering in our commitment to trust God to work on our behalf.

At those moments we must refocus. Stand on the truth of God’s word. “For we walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). We will be swallowed up by waves of despair living at “see” level. We must keep our eyes on Him who is invisible.

To walk by faith is not holding onto wishful thoughts or clinging to uncertain hope. Nor is our faith to be in ourselves to overcome. Or in others to change. Our faith is in Christ alone. The all-sufficient One. The ever-present One.

He knows. Trust Him.

One day at a time, one wave at a time, one breath at a time.