It was a foggy morning on the California coast the morning of July 4th, 1952. Twenty one miles to the west, on Catalina Island, a 34 year old woman waded into the water and began swimming toward California.  She was determined to be the first woman ever to swim the strait – her name was Florence Chadwick.

She had already set the world record for swimming the English Channel in 13 hours 20 minutes and she was the first woman to swim it in both directions.  The water was cold that morning and the fog was so thick that she could barely see the boats that were escorting her in her swim.  After fifteen hours of swimming, the bone-chilling cold of the water and the fog obscuring her view of land, she asked to be taken out.  Those who were with her urged her to continue since they believed they must be getting close to shore.  Chadwick however felt lost in the fog and being unable to concentrate she ended her quest.

When she realized she had been within a half mile of the shore, she lamented, “I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the shore, I know I could have made it.”  As a postscript, she attempted the swim two months later.  Although the fog was just as thick, she kept her mind on the goal and completed the swim in 13 hours, 47 minutes, and 55 seconds, becoming the first woman ever to complete the swim. At times you may feel like you’re in a fog and not making any progress.

The apostle Paul encountered situations in which he felt desperate and overwhelmed,

 For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;   (1 Corinthians 1:8)

Did you catch that statement – the great apostle Paul even despaired of his life.  His confidence and trust however, was not in himself but in God,

 indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, (1 Corinthians 1:9-10)

 Paul placed his hope in God and his confidence was renewed.  We have a tendency to underestimate they power of hope.  Isaiah Hankel records the following story on the power of hope,

 In the 1950s, Curt Richter, a Harvard graduate and Johns Hopkins scientist, did a series of experiments that tested how long rats could swim in high-sided buckets of circulating water before drowning. Dr. Richter found that, under normal conditions, a rat could swim for an average of 15 minutes before giving up and sinking. However, if he rescued the rats just before drowning, dried them off and let them rest briefly, and then put them back into the same buckets of circulating water, the rats could swim an average of 60 hours. Yes, 60 hours. If a rat was temporarily saved, it would survive 240 times longer than if it was not temporarily saved. This makes no sense. How could these rats swim so much longer during the second session, especially just after swimming as long as possible to stay alive during the first session? Dr. Richter concluded that the rats were able to swim longer because they were given hope. A better conclusion is that the rats were able to swim longer because they were given energy through hope. The rats had a clear picture of what being saved looked like, so they kept swimming.

Do you feel like you’re drowning at times?  Keep your focus on God.  Hope can give you the ability to press on much longer than you think is possible!  Hope enables you to see that God can cause all things to work out for good for those who trust in Him.  Hankel observes,

 Purpose equals hope equals energy. Defining the path in front of you will give you the energy you need to complete it. The key is to positively visualize the end at the beginning. You don’t have to actually see the finish line; you just have to envision it. Vision creates hope, or a feeling of expectancy. And hope creates energy.

 Hope can turn your desperation into expectation.  As long as you have God – you have hope.

 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,  (Hebrews 6:19)

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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