Leave the Shallows to Go Deeper

Have you ever begun an activity, only to discover you were getting in deeper than you anticipated? When that happens, we have two choices: turn back or lean in.

Six months into 2025, my “one word” for the year is proving more challenging than I expected. I’ve chosen “one word” annually for more than 10 years. One word to influence how I approach whatever the new year might bring. Words such as release, joy, hope, gratitude, and trust.

At first, the words were challenging, stretching me out of my various comfort zones. Still, by the end of each year, I was able to look back with satisfaction and, with a figurative pat on the back, congratulate myself on the growth I experienced.

But God

But God did not allow me to rest on my laurels for long. (By the way, in case you haven’t heard that phrase before, it means relaxing my efforts after hard work because I thought I was successful, only to learn I celebrated too soon.)

In 2022, I started the year with the word wait. Patience is not one of my stronger characteristics, so I knew this would be an especially challenging word . . . and it was. By the mid-year mark, I was congratulating myself on how well I had learned to wait without grumbling despite my natural inclinations. However my celebration started too soon. You see, I was waiting, but not well. My periods of waiting were reluctant and motivated by resignation rather than anticipation.

That’s when I sensed the Lord calling me out of the shallows and into the deep. Would I spend the second half of the year learning to wait joyfully? Not reluctantly, but with joyful anticipation for what He would allow in my life? That’s where the real growth began!

God called me to leave the shallows to go deeper with another set of words beginning in 2024. My “one word” for that year was embrace. Would I learn to not just accept what life brought me, but welcome every experience? Even seemingly negative situations? Once again, the first six months were fairly routine. Then the rest of the year appeared to fall apart. Four surgeries in six months. Embrace that? Yes, embrace all of that, knowing God was at work.

So what did 2025 bring? My word is flourish. And again, the Lord has drawn me out of the shallows into the deep. Calling me to step up from embracing experiences to flourishing, not despite them, but because of them. And He used two additional surgeries this year to draw me into deeper intimacy with Him. He is reminding me that He’s always at work for my ultimate good (even if it doesn’t feel good at the moment), and His eternal glory. So my new perspective allows me to flourish in what He allows.

None of this means these experiences have been fun or easy. But I’ve learned my greatest times of spiritual growth rarely come when life is easy. Instead, they flourish when I lean hard into my Savior and allow His Spirit to lead me from the shallows into the deep. And the year is only half over!

Has God been calling you out of the shallows into the deep? How have you grown in the process? How would you encourage someone else in a similar situation?