Panic is our great enemy.
We don’t need to become desperate. If overwhelming problems appear in our life, we need to stop struggling. We can tread water for a bit, until our equilibrium returns. Then we can go back to floating peacefully down the gentle stream. It is our stream. It is a safe stream. Our course has been charted. All is well.
Today, I will relax, breathe, and go with the flow.-Melody Beattie, Language of Letting Go

I often picture a stream in my meditations. When I am in need of peace, I visualize floating on a tube, the sun dappling through the willows, the tube successful at staying out of danger. When I feel fearful, my vision is signified by rocks that tear my tube, rapids I need to journey through and logs that get in the way; the vision automatically turns the blue green clear water with a clean pebble bottom to murky sticky waters with storm debris riddling the shore. The blue sky turns gray and I must stop, turn my thoughts to a better vision and pay attention to the self talk. Is it negative? Positive? Am I putting more emphasis on circumstances and less on God’s character? It is interesting that in my mind’s eye I see dangerous waters as negative yet in real life I try to see it as adventurous. I wonder how I can bring my subconscious to a more courageous look at the storms in life. When I face struggles, it makes me feel powerless and unsure of my safety and brings panic on, the loss of control and the unknown of the future. By focusing on the character of God, it quiets the waters and brings the sunlight of the spirit into the dawn.

Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT)