Get Out of the Kiddy Pool

I love the ocean. Oceans are is important to life. They are also important to our Christian life. Christianity is about water.

"Everyone who thirsts, come to the water.' It's about baptism, for God's sake. It's about full immersion, about falling into something elemental and wet. Most of what we do in worldly life is geared toward our staying dry, looking good, not going under. But in baptism, in lakes and rain and tanks and fonts, you agree to do something that is a little sloppy because at the same time it's also holy, and absurd. It's about surrender, giving in to all those things we can't control; it's a willingness to let go of balance and decorum and get drenched." -- Anne Lamott

Christians tend to hug the boat. Jesus walked on water and invited Peter to join him. Not us, we'd rather stay where it's dry, safe, stable. We don't want to get our clothes messed up, our hair wet, or look like drowned rats. Most of all, we don't want to fail!

So we stay on the shore and wade in the shallows. After all, sharks, rip currents, and rogue waves haunt the ocean. Ankle-deep is good enough for us.

Maybe it's time to swim beyond the breakers, to let the currents take us out where we can't touch bottom, where we're less in control, where trust takes over. The depths of God beg us to leave the beach.

Ezekiel was led into the river of life. He started ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep, and finally over his head: a river that I could not cross, because the river had risen and was deep enough to swim in--a river that no one could cross. Ezek. 47:5

Get out of the kiddy pool; swim beyond the breakers. Take the risk. Explore the depths of God. You won't be disappointed.

Lord, I am yours; I do yield myself up entirely to you, and I believe that you accept me. I leave myself with you. Work in me all the good pleasure of your will, and I will only lie still in your hands and trust you. -- Hannah Whitall Smith