Like a Betta Fish...

            I once had a betta fish that literally seemed to never die. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t want him to die, but the average life span is something like 2-3 years and this fish must’ve lived for more than 8 years. He was definitely a trooper. We fed him and cleaned his bowl on a regular basis, but this little fish experienced quite a few challenges in life. I could name 3 events that could’ve killed this fish, but he hung on to his dear life and kept on living.

1.      Without going into too much detail, there was a time when I almost started our house on fire, and in doing so the fish bowl became like a personalized hot tub that you think would have been difficult for a fish to survive through… But he did.

2.      Another time, in the process of cleaning out the fish bowl, the poor little guy was dropped on the floor. He probably fell at least 5 feet, but we managed to scoop him back up and once again… he survived.

3.      The last tragic event that this fish experienced was also a complete accident. While trying to move the fish, somehow he fell into the sink and down the garbage disposal. Granted it wasn’t on, but for a little betta fish I’m betting it wasn’t too fun to be flopping around down there. Multiple people tried to reach their hands down the drain and get the fish out, but no one could get him with just their hands. Our last rescue attempt consisted of using salad tongs to grab him and pull him out. We did manage this time and although he had a couple cuts, he still lived.

Yes, he was just a fish. But for the simple life of a pet fish living by himself in a bowl, he experienced quite a lot. Now the point of that isn’t just to say that my fish was awesome, but more importantly maybe you can in some way compare this to your life. For that fish, nothing that happened to him was in his control. It wasn’t his fault that he got dropped down the drain, nor did he probably ever see it coming. But it happened anyways and there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it except for rely on us to get him out.

            Sometimes we’re just going on in life and unexpected tragedy strikes. Often, these kind of events are completely out of our control and we feel helpless. People say everything happens for a reason, but do we really believe it when something bad is actually happening? Most likely not. Although maybe God allowed something to happen and we often don’t understand the reasons why, it is our responsibility to lean on him to get us through whatever situation we’re going through. Like that little fish, we are pretty helpless without a God who is in complete control. No matter how hard we try, we can’t really fix or help ourselves.

                      “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
                   And the light around me will be night,’

Even the darkness is not dark to You,
          And the night is as bright as the day.
          Darkness and light are alike to You.” -Psalm 139:11-12

The darkness is not dark to God, and that’s something that as humans we tend to forget. Think of God being like a star. Stars are always in the sky. We can’t always see them. When the sun is out and it’s light outside, we forget the stars are there. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t. When the sun goes down and it gets dark outside, the stars start to shine and can be seen more clearly. When life is good, we often forget to praise God for blessing us and always being there. But remember that when you’re in the midst of one of your darkest battles, that God can often be seen more clearly if we know where to look and rely on him to be in control.

“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” –God (Psalm 43:2)

            Maybe we’re all just betta fish. We’re supposed to “just keep swimming” and when we get ourselves stuck in the garbage disposal, we have to have faith that God is going to get us out.