Just Keep Swimming
Sometimes hope does not grow quietly; sometimes hope swims for hours through rough water.
Last Friday off the coast of Western Australia, a family outing turned frightening when changing ocean conditions began pulling a mother and her three children away from the shore. They were vacationing near Quindalup on the southwestern tip of Australia, using rented kayaks and paddleboards, when strong winds suddenly shifted the tide in a new direction.
As they drifted from shore, 13-year-old Austin Appelbee realized that someone had to get help. His mother, Joanne, knew she could not leave the two younger children, ages 12 and 8. So she made one of the most agnozing decisions a parent can make: She sent her oldest child toward shore, alone, trusting him to swim against the current.
Austin tried first with an inflatable kayak. When the kayak began taking on water, he abandoned it. When his life jacket weighed him down, he abandoned that as well. Then for nearly four hours, he swam more than two and a half miles through choppy seas, fading light, and exhaustion. Later he would say that he focused on one thought, repeated again and again: Just keep swimming.
When he finally reached shore around 6 p.m., Austin collapsed on the beach ... and raised the alarm.
A major search followed, and several hours later, a helicopter spotted Joanne and the two younger children clinging to a paddleboard nearly nine miles offshore. They had spent close to 10 hours in the water. Cold, shaken, but alive, they were rescued and brought home safely.
A police inspector later said that Austin’s courage “cannot be praised highly enough.” A volunteer rescue commander called his effort “superhuman.” His mother said simply, “I have three babies. All three made it. That was all that mattered.”
In a world that often feels overwhelmed by fear and forces beyond our control, stories like these remind us that courage does not always burst onto the scene. Sometimes courage swims -- stroke by stroke, prayer by prayer -- refusing to give up even when the shore still feels impossibly far away.
Psalm 46:1 reminds us that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” That presence does not always remove the storm. Sometimes it shows up as endurance. And sometimes it shows up as a teenager who keeps going when everything in his body says to stop.
If you are in rough waters right now -- emotionally, spiritually, or relationally -- take heart. You may be exhausted and you may not see the shore yet, but courage, love, and grace have a way of carrying us farther than we think possible.