Dear Faith Family, 

Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth, (John 17:17). 

It’s called nitrogen narcosis.  Otherwise known as narks, rapture of the deep, the martini effect, or inert gas narcosis, (healthline.com).  Apparently, divers can get “drunk” or disoriented when diving.  It happens when divers reach depths producing added pressure to the gases in their tanks.  Added pressure can produce altered gases.  Altered gases can produce disorientation when inhaled by a diver (or anybody else for that matter).  Combine a less than rightly functioning mind with confinement and throw in some darkness.  It doesn’t take long for fear to muddy the waters. 

I’ve heard that a diver can become disoriented to the point of not knowing which way is up!  Sound familiar?  The pressures of life, (you know – time constraints, unexpected financial burdens, undesirable “news”, season of life adjustments, relational thunderstorms, and even the overwhelming weight of the mundane), have a way of altering our ability to think clearly.  Add emotions that can cloud our judgement.  And it isn’t long before “up” is lost in the darkness of our difficulties.  Fear isn’t our friend in the darkness. 

There is a constant!  Even in the depths of altered gases!  When nothing feels right and “up” is hard to find, there’s always the bubble.  The bubble?!  Yes, the bubble.  I’m told that the diver can always follow the bubble.  It never lies.  It always knows “up”! 

Thankfully God has not abandoned us in our darkness!  There is a constant!  He has given us a “bubble”.  The Bible never lies.  It always knows and points “up”.  Oh yeah.  That makes sense, right?   Fascinating how quickly we can miss, ignore, abandon the “bubble” when the pressures of life alter our mental capacities.  Not to mention our emotional capacities! 

Have you looked at the “bubble” today?  Have you read His Word?  Are you reading His Word?  Like, is that a thing in your life?  Could it be that God allows the dark depths of pressure to make us desperate and even thankful for the “bubble”, His Word?  John 17:17 (that’s the verse at the beginning of the article – I KNOW you didn’t skip over that verse to read the article, right?!) is part of a prayer.  Jesus was praying for you in John 17.  Want to know what He was praying for you?  Go for it.  Read the bubble, I mean Bible! 

Following the bubble Bible, 
Pastor Karl