I recently saw a video of a man getting into freezing cold water to swim. This water had a thick covering of ice over it, and he could only enter from a place where they had cut a chunk out for him to get into it.
I can’t fathom this, but I guess he was into it.
As I watched the video, I saw him get in and begin to swim while his friends were walking on top of the ice he was under. You could see him swimming the whole time. He reached a certain point and suddenly he hits the ice, seemingly trying to break it so he can come out, but it doesn’t. The person on top of the ice, stomps on it and it doesn’t break.
I then began to wonder, what the heck is going on…until he turns, begins to swim back the way he came, and suddenly I saw him holding a red cord. That red cord led him back to the hole they had cut, and he exited with ease…seemingly unphased. I guess it was all part of the plan.
This made me think…
When we are on a journey with God, it can feel like this. The shock of going a new direction is like the initial shock of that icy water. When we determine to go under and begin to swim with Holy Spirit, it can seem easy at first, but then there’s inevitably a time when we want to get out…but we’re not in the right spot yet.
We hit against the ice, trying to break out, but it’s not possible. Unlike the guy in the video, sometimes we begin to flail and refuse to move any further as we bang against an unbreakable place, over and over again. Exhausted and unable to breathe, we begin to question it all.
Before too long, we feel like we’re drowning…and we don’t even realize that it’s because we’ve stopped cooperating with Holy Spirit and have demanded our own way. We don’t get to have our own way when we are following Yahweh.
We finally fast and pray, or whatever, and discover there is a red cord. We take firm hold of it and follow it out to freedom and breakthrough.
The parallels in this story are many.
Without that cord, he could have died in the water. God never leaves us without a way out…the blood of Jesus made the way and Holy Spirit will lead us.
He is our red cord.
Friend, I too am in the middle of swimming the arctic channel. I sometimes feel like I will never see the end. Yet, every time I want to give up, I see the red cord. I find my bearings and continue. I pray you do too. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. There is no adequate compromise. It’s all or nothing.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12
365 Days in the Presence 