Are You Hanging Out in the Kiddie Pool?

Will took swimming lessons at the Y this summer. He wasn’t thrilled about it. I could have taught him how my grandfather taught my dad…just threw him in the river and hoped that he was a fast study. We’ve come a long way since then. We are a kinder, gentler, more civilized people now. And at least 3 females would have cut off my head and donated it to science to see how a man survived 44 years without a brain. 

Back to Will. He was scared of the water. He gets it naturally. His mother is a big chicken, too. Even when I went with him in the evenings to play he wanted to hang on to the edge of the pool. The fact that he was wearing a life jacket didn’t matter. He was taller than the water was deep. Didn’t matter. I was right there with him. Didn’t matter. He had a real fear. Then after a while something clicked. I don’t know why, but I know what…faith. He finally took a leap of faith in my words. He trusted me. By the end of the evening he was swimming in the deeper waters without my help.

God is calling all of His children to deeper waters. He’s told us that he has plans to bless us and prosper us; give us life to the full; make all things work out for good; complete the good work that He started in us; enable us to do all things through Christ; to be strong for us when we are weak; supply all of our needs; make all things possible for those who believe in Him; on and on and on. Yet many times we hang on to the edge, afraid to venture out to the deep waters. The irony is that we don’t need God in the shallow water. He’s not hanging out there anyway. We can handle things on our own in the kiddie pool.

I’m preaching to myself, really. It’s easy to grow complacent. It takes effort to swim out to the deep waters and we may sink. But do I want to play on the froggy slide forever? David was a poor shepherd boy until he attempted something greater than himself. Moses was working in the fields for his father in law until he allowed God to use him for bigger things. Peter was sitting in a boat until Jesus called him out on to the water…and he walked on it.

Would we rather live a life on what we can achieve on our own or what we can accomplish by overcoming fear with faith through God?