Swim to Safety

I think I may noted this already, but I think it is the sort of thing that could bear repeating. When I was younger, I took Red Cross swimming classes to be a swim instructor. The first thing they taught us was if we were going to save someone, we should not go in after them, except as a last resort. We should throw whatever we could out to them (a rope, the end of the towel, a life saver ring,etc.) When we are tested, if we go in after the person pretending to drown, we fail. That is because, in real life, if we do that, the drowning person would climb up as and drown us. And we would fail at saving, and at staying alive.

Where I feel I am right now, is fully understanding this. I am closer to the shore; he is going out to the deep water. Between us is a rip tide that would pull me under and drown me if I swim across. Behind him is a ship with a professional who can save him; he only needs to swim a shot distance more to get there. I can't save him, but I can keep directing him to this professional, and hope he will put in that extra effort to save himself.

It is how we save ourselves and save others. We can't do all the work, or else it will pull us under. But we can direct someone to help. Whether or not they listen is their choice. We can only do what we can do.