Lessons from the Sea: How to Move from Depleted to Full

Depleted to Full

We’re currently staying in a little cove that looks out at the sea. Once a day at low tide the cove is completely drained, water pulled out into the ocean, muddy, pocked sand exposed.

Our little cove cannot try and wish with all its might to be filled again, but it’s the ocean that comes and refills it till waves return, lapping up on our rocks. The seals and crabs swim back in.

I’ve seen that drained cove everyday and oh how I know the feeling, depleted and empty. It’s only with the power of another that it’s filled.

That is how I have come to know true strength over the last years of depletion and weakness. I’ve found the strength that sustains comes when I’m dependent and surrendered to the external power- that ocean of love that fills me up more fully and truly than any amount of willpower or self-reliance.

I don’t have what it takes to conjure up the kind of strength I need to perform the work before me with patience and love and grace, but when I’m weak that’s when God’s strength moves faithfully in full force and fills again.
(above from a 2021 journal)

Verses for Peace

Scripture has sustained me through particularly tumultuous seasons. Focused time early in the quiet morning has been vital. I truly believe staying daily rooted in God’s Word is the key to living my very best, most fulfilling days. Here are a few verses that have been constant companions during those trying seasons:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5: 3-5

Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is Your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings. Psalm 36:5-7

I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:20-23

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8

“...I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:3-5

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all art by Katy Rose

WHY ARE STORIES FROM HISTORY IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN?

STUDIES SHOW…

I read a fascinating study once in which researchers developed a test for children called “Do You Know?”  

It was reported that one of the single highest predictors of children’s health and happiness was linked to how much a child knew about their family story. They had a vision for obstacles that had been overcome, and how parents and grandparents lived before them. They felt connected to the people around them. The stories provided a sense of control within their own narrative.

Additionally, in order to share those stories, time was given to those children, a commodity deeply valuable in child development.

Similarly, this topic of historical knowledge has been studied on a broader level with entire societies. Those with no sense of their history or links to the past lack commonality and shared direction for the future.

Handing stories down to children, whether it’s from our own family history or broader history, might be compared to handing a compass or a lantern to the next generation. 

In her great little book, Do Story, Bobette Buster compares passing down stories to children to passing on a baton in a relay.

She says it’s handing them a “visual template of what to expect, a map of the wilderness...a psychological preparation for life’s inevitable struggles.”

Traditionally, in many cultures each generation was psychologically prepared for their future this way, she says. By hearing the stories of their elders told around campfires and such, stories were passed down, handed down, and written down. The stories helped them know that they would not only be ready to survive but thrive amidst life’s adversities. Stories carry the flame from one generation to the next. 

The Bible is full of encouragement to remember God’s faithfulness, to remember all he has done in the past. Tell the stories to the next generations of how He carried His people through. The prophets in the Old Testament reminded the people how God parted the Red Sea, how He brought them out of slavery. The Psalms recount His faithfulness. His people laid out memorial stones to remember the stories. 

Remembering can be an act of worship

In my own life, I’ve felt this to be deeply true. In my seasons of deepest struggle, daily time in scripture has guided my way. And after that, the most helpful self-help books have been true stories from history. Accounts of those who have walked not perfectly, but with perseverance. Their stories have buoyed me in my own sinking moments. Stories of Corrie ten Boom, Darlene Diebler Rose, Gladys Alyward, and my own family members –  not perfect people, but people who, in their faithfulness and service to others, pointed me to a perfect God.

PASSING ON A STORY OF BRAVERY

I’ve told about how one such story from Queen Elizabeth II’s life spoke to me deeply during a dark season, inspiring my children’s book, Lilibet the Brave.

To me, it feels like such a beautiful honor we have to share stories with children, the good and the bad, to add to the tool kit we’re packing for them as they walk into their own futures. 

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. With each year that passes, the new generations will know less as characters fade into history. I hope this is one little story of hope and bravery that you might pass on to your own children. Grab a copy here, then cuddle up to read with your kids, giving them treasured time and the gift of history.

Dwelling

I think it was in the tiny apartment on the troubled block when I first began thinking about the idea of dwelling. The neighborhood had a higher crime rate than any I’d ever lived in and, I confess, I cried on move-in day. We hauled our boxes up the stairs, no elevator, past the wild-eyed woman who sat on them all day, past the guy who dealt the drugs another floor up. I wasn’t calmed by the sound of gunshots in the street at night, nor by the loud fights in our stairwell.

And what I began to think about was how out-of-control circumstances can feel suffocating, except when we live with an in-control God. We can live somewhere or through something, while we simultaneously dwell in the shelter of the Most High, as Psalm 91 says. It says the person who dwells in the true shelter finds rest in that refuge.

Despite the rats and roaches, we painted the walls, hung homemade curtains, and our 400 sq ft began to feel like home (and a penthouse compared to our previous 250 sq ft). We had our reasons for choosing this block, and in time we found there were even more. Hard things that changed us, I hope. It was also a training ground for some strengthening we’d need a few years down the road in a different neighborhood.

Circumstantial changes can be really good in hard seasons, but they’re not always possible or occasionally not even right. But the peace of God transcends circumstance. It must, and it does because He says He’s near to those who seek Him and abide in Him.

Within a few years, we brought home our first baby, introducing him on the way up to the wild-eyed woman on the stairs, now a friend with a name. And a while after that, I cried when it was time to move out.