rip tides…

I was a lifeguard six summers straight. Maybe it was my affinity for watching Baywatch, or saving lives, or cute, red one piece bathing suits that made me want to guard, but I was more like Hobie from Baywatch than Pam Anderson or David Hasselhoff.

I ended up lifeguarding at a large pool club with plush towels, controlled temperature water, and no ride tides. Truth be told, in my seven years of lifeguarding I only had one successful rescue… if you want to call it that.

When I applied to lifeguard on the beach, I discovered two things:

1. No real lifeguard ever really looks like a Pam Anderson
2. Before you can apply for a position you have to pass a training

Training occurs before the application process because many people who apply for lifeguarding jobs can’t pass the physical exam. I was one of them.

The swim challenge? Passed. The run? Passed. The water recognition challenge? [barely] Passed. The jumping off the Huntington Beach pier challenge? FAIL. [I’m afraid of heights. So is Pam Anderson.]

One training exercise I remember was when they took recruits and taught us how to swim and navigate in challenging waters. Rip tides are some of the most dangerous waters to navigate while swimming because the current will drag you towards the bottom of the sea floor and suck you deeper into dark waters—if you try to fight against it.

The training instructor gave the following tips when caught in a rip current:

• Don’t do want you feel naturally compelled to do; don’t fight to get out.
• Catch your breath and allow yourself to get taken under
• Swim under the current

Sometimes life reflects nature. When we get caught in difficult times, sucked into perilous situations, listen to the Lifeguard who says, Don’t fight. Catch your breath and let go. I will get you through this.

Psalm 46:1-3

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging

When the ground beneath you fails, when you feel like you’re being sucked into the heart of the sea, when the waters roar and foam, Be still and know that I am God [verse 10].

God’s got your back. He’s got your back, your front, from the top of your head to the tip of your toes, David Hasselhoff has nothing on the Chief Lifeguard.