Hope in the Ocean

by Heather Tietz

Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

1 Thessalonians 1:3

Hope is what pulled Bill Durden through surviving 20 hours of treading water. He could not have done it without hope, hope that at any moment a savior would come.

Sixty-year-old Bill thought he was going out for a relaxing day of deep -sea fishing the morning he set sail alone. He didn’t wear a life vest. He wasn’t expecting trouble when a line snagged on the bottom of the boat. He was yanked from his flip-flops into the Gulf of Mexico, twenty-five miles from shore. Then his boat sped away. Bill used the survival tactics he’d learned as a Navy pilot to help him stay afloat and stay sane.

Hope pulls us forward. It enables us to take one more step, one more stroke, one more breath. It literally gives us strength. As Christians, we are daily striving toward loving not only our family, friends but strangers, enemies, those neglected, society’s unlovable.

Our faith calls us to serve, share, listen, and help those around us. It is our work of faith and our labor of love to live with God’s eyes and Jesus’ hands.

At times it feels like w’re treading in water. We’re tired. We’re uncertain. Perhaps at times, the night is long and the waters seem endless. But we aren’t alone.

Hope that God is near, that He can dive in and rescue us at any time, and that someday uncertain waters will be a distant memory, we will walk forever upon a beautiful shore.