Twenty-Six Days

On the morning of October 31, 2003, thirteen-year-old Bethany Hamilton was lying on her surfboard off the north shore of Kauai when a fourteen-foot tiger shark struck without warning and took her left arm. She lost over sixty percent of her blood. Doctors saved her life, but everyone assumed her surfing days were over.

Twenty-six days later, Bethany paddled back into the ocean.

Not to wade. Not to watch. To surf.

She had to relearn everything — how to balance, how to paddle with one arm, how to duck-dive beneath oncoming waves. Nothing came easily. She fell again and again. But she kept getting back on the board because she believed God was not finished with her story.

When reporters asked how she found the courage, Bethany didn't point to grit or mental toughness. She pointed to Jeremiah 29:11 — "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord." Her faith wasn't a feeling. It was a decision to trust that the God who had carried her through the water that terrible morning would carry her still.

Within two years, she was winning national surfing competitions.

Faith doesn't mean the shark never comes. It means you paddle back out believing that the Almighty who holds the ocean also holds you. Sometimes the boldest act of faith isn't standing on the shore waiting for certainty — it's getting back in the water before the fear has fully left.