Keep Swimming by Barry Hughes


As this situation goes on and we are trying to get our mind around the idea that it will continue to go on for a good while longer, my young neighbor’s simple declaration speaks a profound truth. In some situations, under some circumstances, the task can really be that simple - and that challenging. For this moment, we are called to “just keep swimming”.

Though I can’t swim, a condition even childhood YMCA lessons could not cure, I understand. Like the disciples caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee with no option other than to keep rowing, we keep to the task. We face illness that devastates all our plans, we push on. We experience the devastation of the loss of a loved one to death, we keep putting one foot in front of the other because there is nothing else we can do. We face this pandemic and all the far reaching health and economic hardship it is bringing, we keep the faith, we hold on to hope, we live in compassion toward others. In other words, we just keep swimming.

Remember those disciples on the sea long ago? Though they rowed and rowed and went nowhere, Jesus came to them, meeting them where they were, right in the midst of the storm. I will if you will - just keep swimming.

Peace.

-Barry Hughes

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