Relax... and Swim

I received this quote at the top of an email recently:

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

Alan Watts

A question to consider...If you fall into water that is deeper than you are tall, is the water your friend or your foe? 

Well, doesn't it depend on how you think about the water?... whether you know how to swim, or whether you've been taught how to float?  Would your frame of mind play into it?  If you are struck with fear upon falling into the water, you may panic and try to grab at the water... If you do this, you'll use up energy at a very fast rate and quickly find yourself losing to the water.  If you've been taught to float, then you'll preserve energy and at least keep yourself in a position to be able to continue to breathe.  And, if you know how to swim, you can even use the water as a tool to propel you to wherever you wish to go.

Life is much like the water.  We can approach everything with much fear and racked with negative thoughts about the hardships and challenges.  We can struggle around, grasp at things, spend intense energy and quickly get tired and give up.  If this is how we approach it, life will eat us up!!

On the other hand, if we are able to relax...take some deep breaths and trust who we are made to be...Trust that we are made to succeed...Trust enough to patiently just take the next step, doors can open up to us.  We can begin to recognize that our circumstances are PERFECT to teach us exactly what we need to know to get where we want to go.  They may even propel us forward if we stop fighting them, embrace the life that is ours, and use them as tools to go where we want to go.

I love this poem:
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't
If you like to win, but you think you can't,
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will--
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!

The amazing secret that seems to evade so many in our day is that YOU CAN!!!  The wise steward BELIEVES.  He KNOWS he can.  She KNOWS she can.  He or she looks at the world of possibilities, takes stock of circumstances (whether good or bad, happy or sad), talents, desires, and uses those as tools to MOVE FORWARD and accomplish meaningful things.

Once again, this thought: 
"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float."  Trust yourself to your life, trust your abilities, trust God's wisdom, relax and swim.