I should ask for help.

Imagination time!

Imagine you are on the sea, in a boat. Cool sea breeze against your face, the sound of the water lapping against the side of the boat and the peaceful feeling of tranquility washes over you. That’s when it happens. The rogue wave. It tips your boat over and you splash into the water. The shock of falling into the water makes you gasp, filling your open mouth with water as wave after wave washed over you.

You need help. You are drowning.

There are definite moments when I feel like the drowning person in a sea of responsibility and circumstances. I am overwhelmed, stressed out, and anxiety is filling up in me like water in the drowning persons lungs. I should ask for help, but I don’t. Instead I try to push through, treading water and struggling. In the end I am usually too tired to continue, burnt out and washed up.

Hindsight has taught me that if I had asked for help, I would have survived. If I wasn’t so dang prideful, I would have a harrowing tale to tell in the end, instead of just an end.

Truth be told, while I was drowning there were so many wonderful and helpful people motoring around me. At anytime, I could have yelled for help and at least one person would have come to help.

But sometimes I don’t and with that I make two mistakes:

1. I end up hating what I do, quitting before I should and making myself and everyone around me miserable
2. I blame others for not seeing me struggle and not asking me if I need help. I become bitter.

Unlike drowning, as I struggle daily it’s not as obvious. Maybe the image is more like a person drowning but sinking instead of struggling and fighting. I should ask for help.

I have learned a few things through riding the seas of life:

1. Ask for help!
2. Keep margins in my life that will help me from getting overwhelmed in the first place.
3. Keep a godly perspective.

Preachy time: It’s the godly perspective that really has kept everything else in my life in line and safe from drowning. It’s helped me understand my circumstances and situations, given me wisdom to make right choices and has shown where my faults and pride are so I may kill them and live. The Holy Spirit is my compass and lifesaver.

There will be waves and moments of struggle but there is a lifesaver and I all I have to do is ask for help.

Skål