How Much of Life Actually Is in our Control?
- Maggie Wallem Rowe
- Oct 7
- 3 min read
Thoughts for those who find themselves in the deep end
AUDIO LETTER
For a wife and mom of competitive swimmers, I sure do hate water.
Not the drinkable water that comes from a faucet or the salty stuff you admire at the beach, but the kind used as a mode of transportation when you have only your body to get from point A to point B.
OK, hate is way too strong of a word. That should be reserved for pop-up ads, passwords, and opening plastic packaging.
Oh, and for trying on swimsuits.
Maybe I had a bad experience at my childhood YMCA or the fact that I tried breathing underwater once, which was a short experiment, but unlike the rest of my family, I don’t enjoy aquatic locomotion as travel. Liquid propulsion requires you to strip off protective camouflage and show up on deck exposing your pale, goose-bumped flesh.
(For those who recall I do Polar Plunges each February to raise funds for clean water, please know no actual swimming is involved. I show up fully costumed from head to toe, jump in, and wait for the paramedics to pull me out.)
For a girl who considers invisibility to be a Superpower (see last week’s letter), an activity involving a swimsuit is NOT FUN. If I do have to get in the water, give me the shallow end where my bare feet can touch the bottom.
I prefer the shallow end of life, too—not superficial ideas or surface thoughts but circumstances I can navigate with my feet firmly on terra firma. Situations I can control.
But that’s an illusion, isn’t it? How much of life actually IS in our control? It’s a short list:
Your own actions and reactions
Your physical and spiritual disciplines
Your choices about diet, exercise, clothing
Your decisions about jobs, relationships, events
At a recent Wellness for Women day at my church, speaker Laura Greer reminded those present of all that we cannot control—
I need this reminder, friends. You, too?
At a writers’ retreat in Colorado this past week, the worship team led us in a new-to-me song (ABIDE, by Aaron Williams), that focused on our dependence upon God.
For my waking breath, for my daily bread
I depend on You, I depend on You.
For the sun to rise, for my sleep at night
I depend on You, I depend on You
As we sang, I thought of how very dependent we are upon our Creator.
We did not design this spinning planet, nor for the most part can we control what takes place upon it. We may be interdependent on one another for goods and services, but our survival depends on God.
When I pass through death as I enter rest
I depend on You, I depend on You.
For eternal life to be raised with Christ
I depend on You, I depend on You.
Dependence. Trust. Reliance on the only One who truly is in control.
When tough times come—and they will—we may feel as if we’ve been thrown into the deep end of life. We’re floundering, thrashing, fighting to rise above our fears and doubts and troubles.
It’s then that we remember.
“But blessed are those who depend on the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.” Jeremiah 17: 7-8
God, I depend on You.
I deep-end on You.
Seizing joy,
Maggie
If you’d like to listen to ABIDE, you can find it here.
CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of our October book giveaway! Helen B of Canonsburg, PA will receive Redeemer, and Sacred Strides goes to Martha R of Alachua, FL.
IT’S YOUR TURN. When life tosses you in the deep end, what helps you reclaim joy? Please leave a comment here or better yet on Substack, which sends you these letters each week.