Almost There!

In 1952, Florence Chadwick set out to be the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, a distance of roughly 21 miles from Catalina Island to the California coast.

Florence was flanked by support boats with her rifle-toting crew ready to protect her from any sharks that came too close. Her mother and trainer were also on-board, shouting encouragement to 34-year-old Florence, while she swam through the ice cold currents, beginning in the dark of night.

After 15 long hours of swimming, a heavy fog set in, and she told her mother she couldn’t swim any more. Florence was encouraged to keep going, and she did; but an hour later, she asked to be pulled out of the water. She couldn’t go any further. As the fog lifted, she realized she had quit within a mile of the shore (some sources say within a half-mile). Later in an interview, Florence said, “I’m not excusing myself. But if I could have seen land, I know I could have made it.”

Two months later, she tried again. This time when the fog set in, she not only kept swimming to become the first woman to cross the channel, but she also broke the men’s 27-year-old record by more than 2 hours, clocking in at 13 hours and 47 minutes! Her secret? She said she was able to overcome the darkness, sharks, currents, frigid water, and fatigue by focusing on a picture of the shoreline in her mind's eye, convincing herself that she was almost there.

In 1999, when my baby Benjamin passed over into Heaven; and again in 2004, when baby Jeremiah joined him, it didn’t really help me when friends would tell me, “You will see them again!”

I would think, “Yeah, right. 70 years from now!” The promise of Heaven was too far away to bring any comfort to my broken heart.

But in 2020, when Biblical prophecies began to be fulfilled in rapid-fire succession, I knew we were quickly nearing the “catching up” of God’s people, commonly referred to as the rapture (“The dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thes 4:16-17). I became an ardent student of world events and of how they fit into the prophecies of the Bible. The Scripture says we cannot know the day nor the hour, but we can recognize the season! And friends, we are there!

This mental focus on the shoreline of Heaven and the soon return of Jesus is the ONLY WAY I was able to survive Timothy’s plane crash in 2021. I knew the end was already in sight! I would tell myself, “I can make it today, because tomorrow we might be back together!” I kept a mental image of my son, waving wildly and cheering me on from the shore!

This "rapture mindset" spurred me to stay busy for the Kingdom, reaching as many people as possible - knowing time is running out, and the only things that will last forever are the souls of men and the Word of God.

For those who feel that they can’t make it one more day… that the fog is too heavy, and life is too hard… keep going! I can see the shore from here! You can make it, because we’re almost home!

"So comfort each other with these words." I Thes. 4:18