Our family usually bids farewell to summer with a “last blast” trip to the beach right before the school year kicks off. It helps keep the anxieties about all the unknowns from compounding into a giant wave of overwhelm for our girl. We’re simply having too much fun to worry about the challenges that are coming.
Due to a flurry of hurricanes developing throughout the summer in response to record-breaking heat, the waves were extraordinarily high. They were delightful – the kind that picked us up, full-bodied, until we were entirely suspended by their crystal blue waters. We felt weightless. It was the most amazing sensation as our feet left the ground and we were transported to a different place and time. We felt 12 all over again with not a care in the world.
I’ve been returning to that feeling since late August, mulling over why it made such an impression on me. Then came the unexpected diagnosis, all the unknowns about treatment, and my body’s response that could’ve compounded into a giant wave of overwhelm for this girl.
It’s a lot. And if I’m honest, it’s been a lot for quite a while. My body’s taken a beating since Covid and I was just starting to move past most of the rip tides and find my footing again. This new complication felt like a wicked rogue wave that wanted to drown me in the depths of the deep blue.
But the most amazing thing happened as people began to pray – the worry and fear that could’ve kept my feet trapped in the soggy sand and suffocated me in overwhelm was displaced by a dreamy sense of weightlessness. Not denial. Not dissociation. But true weightlessness. It’s as if God rolled in like a strong but gentle wave and picked me up, full-bodied, until I was suspended in His crystal blue waters. My feet left the ground and I was transported to a different place and time – where I felt His love surround me and I didn’t have a care in the world.
I was talking to a friend yesterday who went through the same unexpected ordeal 2 years ago – and she described the exact same phenomenon – weightlessness in it all. Originally, I thought that it was a unique experience, but hearing her express this same counter-intuitive sensation gave me a new perspective. It’s available to all of us – this weightlessness. We get bogged down by the things that try to keep us tethered to the earth. But God desires for us to be wave riders.
In Matthew 11:28-30, He promises that He’ll give our souls rest when we’re tired and the things of this life are heavy. The only thing we need to do is to come to Him – He’s gentle. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. He makes even the heaviest things weightless.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”