Doing it God's Way  

                       With Reverend Michael Cartwright  

"We all panic at one time or another in our lives; I did when I was caught in a deadly rip tide!"

I lived on a beautiful Island called Guam on Anderson Air force base, located out in the Pacific Ocean by the Philippines. I was 13 years old in 1970 when this happened to me and a friend. We were at the beach every chance we got and boys being boys, we would never be caught using any type of flotation device.

 At certain parts of the beach on the other side of the island, you could literally walk out over half a mile out in the ocean without the water being over your head. The water was so warm and blue; I would close my eyes and pretend I was in the world's biggest hot tub.

My friend was showing off his new western cowboy boots at the beach of all places. Then after awhile we both wanted to go out and enjoy the warm water for a little bit, like we have done dozens of times before we had to go back home. So we walked a little ways and we found a spot where there was a person who was sitting with an inner tube beside him. My friend did not want to leave his new boots on the sandy beach and take a chance somebody might walk by and rip them off.

So my friend asked if he could use his inner tube for just a few minutes so that he could keep his new boots dry by resting them on top of the rubber inner tube.

The nice man said yes, so I thought nothing of being seen with flotation devices since we were only going in the water up to our waist for the sake of keeping his new boots dry and then go home for dinner.

It seemed like we were not in the water more than a minute or two when we felt a strong pulling sensation, it felt weird since we were only in water that was just a little more than waist deep.

The next thing we knew we were being pulled out into the ocean, no matter how hard we struggled to walk back towards the safety of the beach, the water continued to pull us even farther out into the ocean.

The beach seemed so far away it seemed like we were going to be dragged for miles out into the ocean. I have never been caught in a rip tide before this day nor have I ever been in one ever again.

Did we panic?

I know we did, at that point we were so scared that we thought we were going to die, I remember that there were many times in my young life where I turned to God for help and this was definitely one of them. I prayed for God to save us.

My friend decided to abandon ship, and let go of the safety of the inner tube and tried to fight against the undertow by diving under the water to swim back towards the shore.

Just a few moments later my friends head appeared above water about 50 feet away from me. Only he was 50 feet farther out into the ocean than where he first started and he seemed like he was going even further away. Satan tried to use his subtle influence of fear on me and convince me that there are sharks waiting for me out in the deeper water where my friend was. And that I should try and go and get help for my friend. I knew how tired I was and I was the one with the safety of the inner tube.

I knew these thoughts of fear in my moment of weakness were not from God, these thoughts of fear of abandoning my friend just did not feel right. I knew God has never abandoned me or forsaken me since I was a little boy. 

 "I will never leave you or forsake you." Hebrews 13:5 

I tried to put the fear of dying from drowning or being eaten from sharks out of my mind.  I made the choice to go out further into the endless scary ocean with the inner tube that I was clutching on too for dear life.

I can't explain it as a frightened teenager, but when I made the decision to turn away from fear and to depend on God to save us, I felt a spiritual sense of calm, like being in the eye of a storm.  By the grace of God I finally caught up with my friend, we were both physically and mentally exhausted and ironically I knew that we would have both drowned and died by now if not for the rubber inner tube that earlier I would not have been caught dead with.

With enough time, we finally did make it back to shore,

It wasn't funny then, but looking back, it's funny how our priorities change so quickly in our lives. My friend who loved his new cowboy boots so much, that he would never let anything happen to them, threw them off of the inner tube and let the ocean claim them, almost as if he was trying to appease the oceans wrath in hopes that  the ocean would become calm waters and let us go back to the safety of the sandy beach from where we were just a few minutes ago. 

I knew I owed God for our lives that day,

I believe that God will protect us if we try to help out others that are weaker than ourselves, I knew my friend, just like me was physically exhausted.

I believe when I decided to put aside my worse fears of drowning and man eating sharks, and put my complete trust and faith in God and go back and help my friend instead of abandoning him. That God triumphed over our overwhelming adversity of the rip tide and led us both back to victory.

As I look back at the power of God's protection that was in both my friends and in my life that day,

I realized if my friend did not bring his brand new cowboy boots to the beach that day that we would never had use of the man's inner tube.

And when we did finally make it back to the beach to give back this man's inner tube,

He was gone, no where to be found.

Was it by chance or by divine intervention that the cowboy boots, the man, and the inner tube all played a part in saving our lives that day?

Some people say if something happens in your life that spares you from tragedy, that it was just luck.

And if it happens twice, that it was just a coincident.

I believe that if it happens several times, that it is not by chance or by coincident but by the consequences of divine intervention in your life.

 "Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desires of his foes." Psalm 41:1-2

I'm happy to say that God has been there for me each and every time, and He wants to do the same for you. All you and I have to do is learn to do it God's way!

What is God's way?

Glorifying God in everything that we say and do.

"We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everythng into the hands of God, who alone could save us." 2 Corinthians 1:9

How to survive being caught in a rip tide

Sadly, experts say the majority of people who drown in a rip tide could have been prevented. Most people drown simply because they panic and hopelessly try to fight against the rip tide and become physically exhausted, just like we did except by the grace of God we had the inner tube with us.

It's important to remain calm and don't panic, and if you just calmly let the rip tide take you out to sea a little ways you will find that the negative force against you lessens a great deal and then because you still have most of your physical strength, that you can calmly swim parallel and safely back to the beach. You will be able to swim out of the rip tide after just 100 to 200 feet and then swim calmly back to shore.

This is the same spiritual principal that we should use in being blessed by God. If you don't fight God and trust doing things His way. He will take you through any rip tide that is happening in your lives to calm waters and He will bless you for your trust and faith in Him.

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