When I was about 10 years old, I visited my sister Jean who lived about an hour away from us. It was in the summer and it was hot, so we all went to the community pool to swim and to cool off a little.
I want you to understand something about me and water. As a child I was like a fish. If there was a pool I was in it. If there was a beach, I begged my parents to spend time there. I LOVED the water. But there was a problem, I was not a very good swimmer. I hadn’t taken any lessons, my Mom had taught me how to float and to swim a little, but that was it. Back to my story.
I was having a blast, fooling around and splashing in the shallow end, and then I had a great (stupid) idea. Why not try my hand at the deep end of the pool. My nephew was over there, so why can’t I be too? So I made my way to the side, I crept along the ledge of the pool, I made it all the way to the divider, went underneath it. And bam, I was in the deep end. Than I proceeded to slip off the ledge and suddenly I was in trouble. What seemed like an awesome idea turned out to be a bad one, I remembered that I couldn’t swim. I struggled, and splashed, I must have swallowed half of the pool. The lifeguard didn’t even jump in the pool, he just kept trying to get me to grab the rope on his whistle. Finally my nephew, Nick, shoved me to the edge of the pool, and I was lifted out. Needless to say, it was a long time before I ever went back to the deep end.
Learning to swim is a natural part of our childhood and development, and at some point we make the move from staying in the shallows to being able to go to the deep end, where the ultimate reward awaits us – the diving board. In our walk with Christ it is the same way, we spend our formative years as Christian’s learning to splash about in the shallow end, soaking in the grace and mercy of God. But as we grow and mature, we need to be able to take that step, and move into the deeper things of God, and take a dive into the mission that Jesus gave us.
Matthew 28:19 NLT
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
This is our life call to missions. A call that in order for us to obey, is going to take “deep-end” living.
The shallows are great, it’s where we get in the pool, it’s where we discover who we are in Christ, and how much He loves us. But the deep-end is where we need to be headed. That’s where we can dive into what God has for us, and where He wants us to go.
Over the next few days I want to share with you some important ways that we can start to learn to swim, and move from the shallows, to the deep end of God’s purpose and plan for our lives.
Source Material: The Fifty Two, Volume 4 Produced by national youth ministries Copyright ©2010 Gospel Publishing House.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Resonant Love 