The Rip Current

Every summer, lifeguards along Florida's Gulf Coast pull hundreds of swimmers from rip currents — narrow channels of water rushing away from shore at speeds up to eight feet per second. The danger is real, but the killer is rarely the current itself. It is panic. The moment swimmers feel themselves being dragged out, every instinct screams to fight, to thrash toward the beach with everything they have. And that frantic struggle is exactly what drowns them.

The counterintuitive instruction posted at every beach access point in Panama City reads the same: Do not fight the current. Float. Be still. Let it carry you. Then, when the pull weakens, swim parallel to shore. Stillness feels like surrender, but it is survival.

The Israelites stood at the edge of the Red Sea with Pharaoh's chariots thundering behind them, dust rising on the horizon. Every instinct screamed to run, to scatter, to do something. But Moses delivered the most counterintuitive command imaginable: "Stand firm. Be still. The Lord will fight for you."

God was not asking His people to be passive. He was asking them to trust that the current of His deliverance was already moving beneath the surface. Within hours, the sea split open and the army that terrified them was gone forever.

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is stop thrashing and let the Almighty do what only He can do.