In Over Your Head and Going Under

Sometimes life gets crazy – everything happens at once and you feel yourself going under. A child gets sick, a friend turns hostile, your wallet is empty, dead-lines converge, you're losing your capacity to hold it all together.

You’re being sucked under, over-whelmed.

Some of Israel’s songs express this kind of nightmare experience.
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
The floods engulf me.
Don’t let me sink;
Do not let the deep waters swallow me up.
Psalm 69

Water is wonderful, but in excess it becomes a flood! Over-whelming! When you’re over your head in a torrent of circumstances, a sea of anxiety, your confidence shattered, what do you do?

This singer calls out to God to rescue him, but God is silent. He scours the horizon, but there’s no God in sight. God is far-away and apparently unconcerned.

This song is called “a David psalm” which means either that it was written by David or reflects David-like desperation. David knew his share of life-threatening events, but even more over-whelming was his moral lapse when adultery led to fraud, murder and cover-up - when he felt himself sucked under by guilt and self-loathing.

What we learn from David’s life and his songs is the art of desperate faith. When he was out of his depth, he called out to God. Having practiced his faith in calmer seasons, he instinctively knows how to pray in his extremity.

But the on-going silence of God completely unnerved him. His foot-hold became quicksand as he sank deeper into the abyss.

In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian nears the end of his hazardous life journey. As he crosses the final river, he loses his footing. His friend Hopeful feels the ground solid beneath him and tries to cheer him on, but - we each have our own crossings - and Christian flounders. He is over-whelmed.

Bunyan brilliantly catalogues the haunting fears and guilt that assail his hero on this final stage of his journey, almost drowning him in despair. But Christian recalls God’s promise, “when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overthrow you.” He regains his footing and splashes through the rest of the river with ease.

Who can tell why some people find life easy and others are over-whelmed by it? Who can tell how vulnerable or afraid each of us will feel in the face of our death?

Bunyan reminds us, like the psalmist, in our most desperate moments to trust God’s ultimate goodness, to remember that Jesus Christ is no stranger to this over-whelming. He was engulfed by horrendous God-forsakenness and groaned to his sleeping friends, “"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”

He knows the taste of our desperation. He has crossed our river and holds out his hand. He is the over-comer that meets us and sustains us in our over-whelming.

Photo credits:
RFI - Indonesia Flood
Pilgrims Progress illustration Alan Parry
The Passion of the Christ