By Kristin Wyse
GCU Office of Student Care
#Askingforafriend
SOS … the international code signal of extreme distress or an urgent appeal for help. What does your distress call look like? When do you feel as if you’re in the deepest and darkest of waters, when the shore is so far away you can’t even see it and the waves keep crashing in?
It’s so much easier to answer SOS distress calls from others, but it can be so difficult to call out for help when we need our own lifeline – a lifeline to help us navigate through these deep and dark waters of life.
Here are three lifelines that can help us catch our breath, brace for the next wave and maybe even gain a view of the distant shore:
The first lifeline is self-care – or, in other words, taking care of ourselves.
Think of yourself as an emotional bank account. We have numerous withdrawals taken out of our account throughout each day. Work, school, shopping, paying bills, cleaning, relationships … the list can go on and on.
But what deposits are you putting into your account? If there aren’t any deposits going in, you won’t be able to be at your best. Discovering what calms you is key to balancing your emotional accounts.
The second lifeline is to offer up – offer up our control, our plan, our needs, our timing, our emotions. It means humbly inviting God to have control in our lives because He’s the One who controls the wind and the waves.
Prayer is simply talking with God and listening to Him. It’s not a transaction where I pray this and God does that. Instead, it’s a reciprocal relationship where God reveals Himself as we give over our independence for dependence on Him. It’s a relationship where we are accepted just as we are.
The third lifeline is a support system. We are specifically designed to have relationships. Unfortunately, in our technological age, we have become more disconnected under the guise of being more “connected.” And it is so much easier to portray our life through a filter rather than reveal our wounded souls.
But when we reach out and reveal our woundedness, we find that we are not alone. There are others who have experienced those same waves and have those same wounds. And in the sharing of our wounds, we find healing … a lifeline.
Three lifelines to answer our calls for distress. Unfortunately, life is not usually lived onshore. It is lived in the waters. Sometimes those waters are shallow and warm, and the waves are gentle. But sometimes those waters are deep and cold, and the waves toss us to and fro.
We can learn the most about ourselves and others while in the midst of those deep waters and intense waves. In those desperate times, we can call out our own SOS and receive help from our support system and calm our souls. What do you do when you are in distress? Who hears your SOS?
