Have you ever been white water rafting?

For those who haven’t, let me help you visualize it: you purposely get into a relatively sturdy rubber raft in a relatively dangerous part of a river, and do your best to steer the raft, using paddles, away from rocks and treacherous drops, all while hanging on for dear life. At the end of the ride, in a “calmer” section of the river, you are able to take stock of your surroundings (and double check that everyone else is still in the boat), dazedly wondering what the heck is wrong with us humans, and when did we decide riding dangerous parts of a river can be a recreational activity? You may or may not turn to glare at whoever suggested this “bonding activity,” promising yourself you will reconsider any other “bonding” suggestion they bring up in the future (unless it was you, which… says a lot).

I describe it like that, but to be honest, I’m a total adrenaline junkie: roller coasters, rock climbing, flying planes, and white water rafting are my idea of fun. I’d probably be the one suggesting we go, actually (like I said, that probably says a lot about me… ha!). But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t scare me to death doing these things, I just pray to God that I’m not going to die while doing it and enjoy the ride.

These days, life feels an awful lot like white water rafting.

It feels as though we will be swept away in the rush of this world, as though the turbulent white water is going to sweep us out of the boat and into the treacherous current. So much is changing, so much about how we have lived before is crumbling away. 

I think we often think our own generation is the most chaotic. I remember as a kid (and sometimes even now) my favorite daydreams were the ones where I or a character I invented leapt back in time. I would picture cultures and places that have long been lost to time and imagine being a part of them. The older I got, however, the more I realized just how unrealistic and fantastic I imagined those time periods. Just like now, the people of those periods lived in constant uncertainty, and suffered unimaginable brutality. They struggled with their own personal battles, no different from us. In fact, thinking about it now, I would NOT be able to live in any other time period other than the present, because, like it or not, I am a product of my generation. I was not meant to be in any other time period aside from right now.

And that goes for all of us: we were never meant to live in any other time besides the one we were born in. There is no such thing as ‘the good old days,’ whether we feel the modern era is an improvement or a disappointment, we cannot wish we could go back. The past is past, regret and reminiscence will not help you grow.

Here’s a fact for you: every period of time is chaotic. Even if we only went back a couple generations, there was plenty of chaos. Even if we leapt forward in time, do you really think the world will have any fewer problems than we do now? 

I doubt it.

But that is the thing about life: things will always change in an instant. We might not be able to expect which way the current is going to push us, and sometimes it is difficult to see past the area we are in. It just feels like we’re being tossed from rock to rock, dangerously close to impacting on the obstacles of life. But that doesn’t mean we should allow our steadfastness to waver, and it doesn’t mean we should cower in fear. If you give up trying to hold on to what you believe in, if you hesitate and try to cover your eyes, you will miss what you should be learning from these chaotic times.

Because learning doesn’t end with graduating or leaving school, it continues until the day we die, and you should never stop seeking to learn, seeking for answers to your questions. Whether we want to believe or not, there is something to be gained, something to be built in this chaos.

In the Bible, there is a story Jesus tells about a man who builds his house on sand, versus the man who builds his house on a rock. Now, common sense tells us that the guy who built his house on a rock is a whole lot smarter than the other guy. But, think about it: what does it mean to build your house on a rock? What is our house? Isn’t it ourselves? How often do we build ourselves on sand? When push comes to shove in the world, our beliefs and our concept of identity is shaken, and our foundation crumbles away. Sometimes we don’t even know that we had built our house on sand until it all falls away. We have to reassess ourselves, and put pause on our lives to figure out who we are.

There is nothing wrong with pausing our lives when we are uncertain about whether we are making the right choices in life. In fact, I think it’s better to do that, rather than continue shoving our way forward. Otherwise, the ground will eventually give way, and we will find ourselves tumbling to the bedrock, whether we intended to or not. That’s the infamous “rock bottom.”

And rock bottom looks different for everyone. People may not even be able to see you are at rock bottom by looking at your life from the outside. There are many people in this world who struggle emotionally and mentally with where their life is at, but it is not visible from their day-to-day routines. They can have the brightest smiles, but be in absolute turmoil inside.

That’s why it’s important, by the way, to have a confidant. Other people might not be able to see you drowning in front of them, so having someone to go to, whether it’s God, or your family, or your close friends, or at the very least a journal, having someone to go to is extremely important. Rock bottom is a hard place to be without someone or something to recenter yourself on.

So I want to encourage you, my reader, to recenter yourself when you feel yourself going adrift or hitting rock bottom. Don’t struggle out there all alone, reach out for that helping hand, that lifeguard waiting to pull you to shore. Remember that you are meant to embrace the adventure of life, and don’t worry too much about what you can’t control.