'Trying to Help'

🌊🏊🏼‍♀️ Have you ever swam out in the ocean, in extremely deep water ("spiritually speaking" here)?!  In this scenario of which I'm writing, your feet cannot touch the floor of the very deep ocean, while you're treading water, and, doing your very best to "stay afloat!" 😧🏊🏼‍♀️ You are trying to obey your "head coach's" (representing The Lord) instructions! 🙏🏼 Your partner has gone "AWOL," attempting to help someone who needed assistance with his surf board, 🏄🏼 which is NICE, but, NOT in obedience to the company's "lifeguard protocol!" 😗 YEP, you're a lifeguard...a "lifesaver," who needs her life "saved"..."at the moment!" 🏊🏼‍♀️ 😏 People tend to assume that the "lifesavers" are always okay!  However, sometimes that assumption is incorrect!  The truth is that "lifeguards" are just as "human" as everybody else! 🚣🏼‍♀️ Nobody realizes that, one of your "calf muscles" is cramping - badly! 😩 You are trying to relax, hoping and praying, that it'll loosen up, and quit cramping - ASAP! 😣 You look down to see what just touched your pinky finger, and, you see a huge 🦈 dark spot in  the water, coming toward you, and then, feel it brush against your other leg (the one that isn't cramping), and, the reality hits you that, the shadow which just swiped you, as it swam by, was a...🦈SHARK! 😳 Thankfully, it kept on going...probably "on the hunt" for a "better tasting snack!" 🐬 🤣 While dealing with all of this, you accidentally (of course) breathe in a little salt water, so now, your mouth and nose, are stinging, not to mention - the salt water that the kiddos splashed into your eyes - while riding the waves on their rafts, are also burning 👀! 😱 But, to everyone around, you "look like" 👀😆 you are doing just fine! 🤣 You and God are the only ones who know that - you are not doing fine - at all!! With ALL of the irritations, you, somehow, forgot to apply some of "the fundamentals" of swimming and lifeguarding, and as a result, there is a definite possibility that - you might drown, and/or get eaten by that Shark!! 😳😔 You are finding the entire predicament surreal!  You never dreamed that - you could ever be - where you find yourself! 😩😔 Anyhoo, eventually...someone figures out that, you are not acting like yourself...you are not alright...something is terribly wrong!  So, out of pure panic, sincere concern, adrenaline-rush, etc., he starts "TRYING" to "help" you! 😮 As he begins his attempt to rescue you, other people also begin realizing that...you are in TROUBLE! 🌊😱 Of course, everyone begins doing what each of them "think" to be the "right" action necessary to help you! 😳 Some of them are yellling advice to you (well meaning, but, WRONG advice - in some cases) and, others are also, physically striving in various ways to save your life! 😫 After a while of chaos, panic, and the such, you are back on the sandy, itchy, hot, etc., shore! 🏖😃 First of all, to the people who were  "yelling" at you (expressing THEIR "opinion," and, offering "ADVICE"- about your situation / one example:  "I told you NOT to go out that far!!" Ha!) while you were possibly "drowning," I ask you, "have you ever actually been "out in the deep water" (spiritually - attempting to - know and do - God's "perfect will" in your life)?  And, unless you literally have, my next questions are..."how do you know about that which you are advising others?! And, "when did you become a certified lifeguard?!" 😗 Seriously though, how does that work?!" 😏😗 It is stink'n easy for any of us to "sit back," and, critique, have and give - our opinions - about other people's lives...judge them, give them advice, condemn their, decisions and choices, BUT, we really are CLUELESS (most of the time), and, should "mind our own business (letting the capable, "trained" ones handle it)!  Because, like the saying goes...it's honestly..."NONEYA!!" Ha!! 🤣 The BEST thing we can do to help people who are in trouble, when we really have no idea how to truly help them, is to PRAY for them!! 🙏🏼✝️💜  Whenever, I am dealing with a difficulty in my life, I like it when someone lets me know that, he/she cares, is "there" for me (to let him/her know when, where, what I need, etc.), that, he/she is praying for me, loves me, and the such (without being intrusive upon my personal boundaries). 😙 Please, don't get me wrong here!  I have been one of those, who has "handled" "helping" someone about whom I care's, "bad time," incorrectly and/or inappropriately! 😔 And, because, I continue to carry the regret of doing so...I desire to learn a lesson from it, apply it to my actual conduct in living - to - please and honor - Christ...I most certainly intend on handling these types of situations appropriately (in a way that pleases The Lord) from now on - with HIS supernatural help! 🙏🏼Now, back to our story!  So, if, you are the one who is out in the deep, struggling to conquer the mysterious waters, while attempting to do God's will, sometimes - for self preservation - it is important that - you "block out," or "turn off" (or decrease the volume) ALL of the "VOICES" coming at you, and, LISTEN for "your personal trainer/coach's" (THE HOLY SPIRIT) voice! 🕊 At the same time, you would be very wise in choosing to recall - everything that - you are able - from the "lifeguard's instruction manual" (BIBLE), and then, apply it to your precarious "circumstance!" 🌊🏊🏼‍♀️ Another analogy would be - like - an airplane ✈️ pilot, who is navigating through a storm, and, has become confused about what direction he is going - due to the plane being tossed and turned.  And, he has been trained, and, he remembers that, he is to NOT trust what direction his, eyes and body, are telling him that he is going, BUT instead, to TRUST the plane's COMPASS! ✝️ Oftentimes, on "life's SEA of circumstances," we want to DO (react) what our "natural man" is "telling" us to do (according to our five senses), however, to live victoriously, as a Believer, it is imperative that, we GO back to what The Bible (our "compass") states, and then, trust and obey, it! 📖✝️🙏🏼 I suppose, the "point," which I'm inadequately attempting to make, is that, this "FLIGHT," called LIFE, for ALL of us, however "wonderful" it may (overall) be, is usually NOT easily navigated!  Therefore, each of us, would do well, if, we'd pay attention to - keeping our hands on our own "steering wheel," and, our eyes 👀 on our own, view and panel board, etc. (on JESUS - Hebrews 12:2), as the pilot of our own "airplane!"  Because, trying to "pilot" someone else's plane, is impossible, and, we cannot affectively navigate our own "aircraft," if, our attention is on someone else's! 😉 After all, each of us have different "flight destinations" (God's personal purpose/plan/will for each one of HIS children / I'm not writing about our eternal states here)! 🌎📖 "Mayday, Mayday!!!" 😳🙏🏼✝️...👋🏼💜...until next time...