When life goes against the current

24 March 2022

Reaching out for a helping hand is closer than you think

Words Dean Simpson

Have you ever been caught in a rip? For those who have, you’ll know it’s one scary experience! 

Growing up on the NSW South Coast, I have become quite adept at spotting rip currents at the beach, and even better at telling people not to enter the surf where one has formed! 

These powerful, narrow channels of fast-flowing water can move up to 2.5m per second, faster than an Olympic freestyler. Panicked swimmers often try to get out of a rip by attempting to swim straight back to shore, putting themselves at risk of drowning because of fatigue. 

I first experienced this feeling as a teenager while gaining my surf lifesaving certificate. The instructor led me and a group of boys to one end of the beach where a rip was in full flow. He then ordered us, one at a time, to enter the surf and allow ourselves to be carried out by the current. 

Sitting about 80m offshore was another instructor in an IRB (Inflatable Rescue Boat). As it happened, I was the first boy ordered in. I had studied the theory behind rips and how to navigate them, but nothing prepared me for the full experience, especially when the instructor yelled at me to start swimming against it. 

It was no use. The current was too strong and the distance between me and the shore increased rather than decreased. The rip quickly sapped my strength, and I could feel a slight panic set in as I started to sink. 

It was then that a powerful arm reached down and grabbed me. It was the instructor in the IRB. He hauled me into the boat, and I lay on the floor gasping for breath. It was a lesson well learned. 

The following week, we did the same exercise, but this time we were told to swim sideways, out of the rip, and then swim to shore. It helped, and it got me out of the rip, but I’ve never been a strong swimmer and once again I tired easily and felt myself sinking. I was relieved when I saw the instructor’s powerful arm again reach down and pull me into the boat. 

ANOTHER RESCUE MISSION 

It was not long after that experience that I came across the passage in the Bible where the apostle Peter tried to emulate Jesus walking on water: “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him” (Matthew chapter 14, verses 29-31). 

The link between my rip-current experience and Peter’s experience on Lake Galilee was quite profound. And it’s something I’ve carried with me my whole life. 

There are times in life, situations you find yourself in, when you feel like you’ve been thrown in the deep end, and a ‘rip’ is carrying you away. Relying on your own strength to ‘swim’ out of it can be very draining.

It’s not until you cry out to Jesus, “Help, I’m sinking!”, that a powerful arm reaches down and lifts you up. Jesus’s rescue mission could come in the form of an encouraging verse of Scripture, a close friend coming alongside you, words of affirmation from people you know, or maybe a counselling session.

It’s a well-known fact that God uses people to help people. The knowledge that I was not alone in my rip experience, that an instructor who knew what I was going through was on hand, was an incredibly comforting factor.

A verse in The Message Bible translation sums it up perfectly, “He [Jesus] comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.”