One Girl and a Big World

Welcome back!

This post is going to be different. It will focus on a life lesson I learned the summer of 2021, a time where I was going through a lot of change.

As I briefly mentioned in my “Welcome” blog, I swam competitively for twelve years. Swimming was probably my first love in this world. For me, to swim is to be free. I have so many good memories from my years of swimming. Even when I graduated high school, I still could not completely leave it, I would miss it too much. To cure this problem, I decided to teach swim lessons as a summer job. In the summer of 2021, my family moved to Virginia after my dad had gotten a new job. There was a YMCA in our little town and so I applied for a job as a swim instructor. I was hired, and so my summer began in a new town.

Although I had moved six times previously, the move to Virginia was still hard. I was not able to graduate like I wanted to back in Houston, nor was I able to finish out twelve years of swimming properly as we moved one month before graduation. This move really threw me off guard and I had to learn how to adjust to a new town again. After finishing high school, I threw myself into work to pass time as I did not have anything else to do, and as the months passed, I received more and more requests to teach private lessons at the YMCA. But even with work as a distraction, I felt very much alone.

One day a request came in from a family with five children. The mother wanted me to work on her daughters’ swim technique (my strength in swimming) so they could join swim team in the fall. The two older girls were much more confident in the water and I helped them tweak their technique and strengthen their weaknesses in swimming. The youngest girl, however, was not as advanced, as struggled with confidence in the water.

One day as I was instructing the younger daughter, I decided to work on backstroke with her. We had tried backstroke a little over the past two weeks, but I was going to push her a little that day. Of course, she did not know what I had planned. While in the water with her, I told her to go on her back and to start swimming. I placed my hand under her head to give her support as she started kicking and moving her arms. After a little, I slowly began to let go of her head to the point where she was, unbeknownst to her, swimming on her own.

About ten seconds after I had let go, the girl realized I was no longer holding her. She began to panic and started to sink. I immediately pulled her up. The girl turned back to look at me and asked, “Why did you leave me?” I responded with, “I never left you. I was right behind the whole time watching you!” The second the words escaped my mouth, I realized a truth God had been trying to teach me for a while.

Just because we may not be able to “feel” God at times, does not mean He has left us. He is always right beside us, watching us, waiting for us to call on him for help. Dear reader, you have never been, and never will be alone. God has always been right there. He never left you and he never will. In your moments of drastic change and uncertainty, whatever it may look like in your life, you are not alone. The Maker of the Stars is always there for you. In your moments of happiness and clarity, your Creator is with you.

One of my favorite verses is Matthew 28:20b. Jesus says, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus does not say he will be with you only in the good times, or only in the bad times. Only when you feel him, or only when you do not. He is with you ALWAYS, until this earth has passed from existence, and into eternity.

God Bless 🙂