AUGUST 31 "DO YOU SEE THE SHORELINE?"

 Florence Chadwick loved to swim. She was born in San Diego, California on November 9, 1918. She grew up on the beach and began competing as a swimmer at the age of six. After four years of defeats, her uncle entered her in a contest at the age of ten in a two and one half mile “rough water” night swim where she came in fourth.

For the next 19 years she continued as a competitive swimmer. She was the first woman to swim across the English Channel...both ways. She even swam across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Chadwick was 34 years old on July 4, 1952, when she attempted to become the first woman to swim the 21 miles across the Catalina Channel from Catalina Island to Palos Verde on the California coast.

The weather that day was challenging because the ocean was ice-cold, and the fog was so thick she could barely see the support boats that followed her. The tides and current were against her. And, to make matters worse, sharks were in the area. But at daybreak she decided to go forward anyway, expecting the fog to lift in time.

Hour after hour she swam. The fog never lifted. Her mother and trainer followed her in one of the support boats encouraging her to keep going. While Americans watched on television other members of her support crew fired rifles at the sharks to drive them away. She kept going and going. At about the 15 hour point she began to doubt her ability to finish the swim.

Unfortunately, at 15 hours and 55 minutes she had to stop and with huge disappointment she asked her support crew to take her out of the water.

Because of the fog, she could not see the coastline so she had no idea where she was. She soon found out, however, that she was less than a mile from the coast. She could have certainly reached it if she had just stayed in the water a few minutes longer.

Later she told a reporter, “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I know I could have made it.” The fog had made her unable to see her goal and it felt to her like she was getting nowhere. Two months later she tried again. And, though the fog was just as dense, this time she kept going. Her time was 13 hours and 47 minutes breaking a 27-year-old record by more than two hours and becoming the first woman ever to complete the swim.

In Jeremiah Chapter 30, God speaks thru Jeremiah to the people, to tell them, that though they are going to go through a hard time, but that God will save them through it!

What will keep many going in times of rough waters and times where we think we cannot go much further, is some kind of “true hope” not false hope, but “true hope” that we are actually going to make it.

If God says, ‘you’re gonna make it through” then “you’re gonna make it through”. God does not give us false hope or encouraging words just to make us feel better, as sometimes people do.

If He gives us a word, of hope, that we will make it through, or we will be healed or He will come through financially, than that’s exactly what will happen!

 

The shoreline is there, a mile away, it’s a matter of fact, keep swimming, you’re going to make it…is sometimes all we need to know!