This summer my children have been taking swimming lessons at the Y. I have a "minnow", a "pike", and a "guppy" and they just love it! I have been blessed with three kids that absolutely love the water and love to learn how to swim and respect the water. They are always so excited to tell me about their "water adventures" and what they learned and how many times they jumped or did a summersault or went to the bottom to pick up a toy.
Learning how to swim is a skill that is necessary not only to our physical lives, but it is also essential to learn how to navigate the waters of our spiritual lives. Once again, we have to peer through our spiritual lens to see the connection between physical swimming and spiritual swimming. When we are born from our "womb waters" onto the shores of our physical selves, we will have to learn how to "swim" in life's ocean. Water is so physically significant in our lives and it is spiritually significant in our lives. Our brain consists of 70 percent water and our blood is 83% water. An adult male's body is 60% water. An adult female's body is 55% water. A baby is 75% water. It is also interesting to note that 71% of our earth's is salt water, and 2.5% is fresh water lakes and frozen water. God's creation of earth is like looking into a mirror.
For some people, swimming comes naturally, and others really have to work at learning how to swim. Babies have a very natural inclination for swimming, and if you put an infant in the water, they will float, almost as if it is a natural reflex. Amazing! A lot of people learn to swim when they are young children, maybe first starting off with parent/infant lessons and then finally working their way up to being by themselves in the water with a licensed instructor. And some people don't learn to swim until they are much older for various reasons. And there are those people who struggle with a fear of water. And there is a whole spectrum of fear. Fear of the water ranges from I just can't go near a swimming pool and any depth of water to I will only swim in water I can stand comfortably in to I have a fear of the "deep end" of the pool or the "deepness" of a lake. Some people can swim in all "depths" of water, but they have a fear of diving from a board. And some people just get overwhelmed at the largeness of the water before them.
The above is true when it comes to "swimming" in the "waters of life". Not only do we have to physically learn to swim in pools and lakes, we must become a student of "spiritually swimming" in life's waters as well. Just as there are experts, teachers, and instructors for learning how to swim in a pool, there are experts, teachers, and instructors who can spiritually teach us the "strokes", "techniques", and "lessons" for navigating the deep, shallow, calm, and rough waters of life. Staying afloat in life's waters and truly enjoying the exercise, refreshment, and fun of it is our goal. And underlying the navigation of life's waters of course, is safety first. As a mom who has to watch three kids in the pool when we go swimming, it is always brings me a lot of peace that there are lifeguards who are there to protect, remind the kids and adults how to be safe, and rescue a swimmer who might be in trouble. Their job is to remain alert, watchful, and ready. They literally keep guard over our life while we are in and around water. God keeps guard over our lives in a very similar way. Always alert to our cry for help, always watching out for our safety, and ready to rescue us should we get in over our head.
The waters God keeps watch over, are the waters of our thoughts and our feelings, our mind, and our heart. Water is talked about in the bible many many times. From the creation of the waters to Noah and the flood, to the parting of the Red Sea, to Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. And let's not forget the woman who meets Jesus at the well and Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. Water has been significant physically and spiritually since the beginning of time. Spiritually, water takes on many symbolic meanings. When Peter walks across the water to Jesus, he is overcoming his own fears. The stormy waters are created by the fearful, anxious, worried thoughts he is thinking, and Jesus commands him to move toward him...to keep his thoughts focused on him instead of the storms in his mind and heart. Haven't we all had to face our own stormy thoughts at one time or another? Maybe we were diagnosed with a serious illness, maybe we ran into financial difficulties, or maybe we were asked to do something really difficult at our workplace. We have a choice as to how to navigate these "waters". Will we worry? Will we imagine the worst outcome? Will we lose confidence in our abilities? Will we believe that we will be fine? Will we sink or swim in these situations? Just as my children are learning how to stay afloat in a swimming pool, Jesus spent a lot of time teaching us how to stay afloat in the waters of our lives. Jesus demonstrates the important "strokes and techniques' of spiritual swimming - faith, belief, asking for what we need, trust, compassion, and forgiveness keep us swimming and alive, even in the most turbulent waters. My daughter, Olivia, LOVES the water. She really has no fear of it at all. When she jumps in- she really jumps - arms flailing, big smile on her face, and giggling. She has no sense that the water could be dangerous because she trusts completely that her instructor will be there to catch her.
Some of us are like Olivia. We just dive right in, never thinking ahead, never worrying about different outcomes, never once believing that we wouldn't be all right. Olivia has the most fun in the water! Pure joy all over her face! Some of us are like my daughter, Clare. She came to me after swimming lessons this week upset that she shouldn't have been moved up a level because now she has a harder time doing what the swim instructor is asking her to do. She wants to go back down a level where she was confident, secure, and not challenged. I would say a lot of us sometimes feel the same way... not wanting to test the waters of something new and different. Feeling out of place and a little unsuccessful, not sure if we'll ever get it right. The fun has changed because now we're having to really think and use different parts of ourselves that we haven't used before. The other waters were much easier to navigate. I sat down with Clare and told her that her swim instructors believe in her abilities and that she is capable of doing what they ask. I told her that if she stayed behind, she would never be the strong swimmer that her instructors believe she can be and she'll have to watch everyone else growing in their abilities and feeling stronger, more free, and less and less afraid. God believes in our ability to be challenged by "different waters" that we'll come across in our life. God sometimes moves us into "deeper" waters that cause us to learn new techniques, strokes, and ways of moving successfully through them. Nathan is learning how to coordinate his arm strokes with his kicking. He is getting better week by week, but he has had to practice, practice, practice. The same is true of us spiritually. Sometimes we have to practice, practice, practice before we've figured out how to coordinate our mind's thoughts with our hearts feelings. The stormy waters of anger require not just the knowledge that we need to forgive, but a heart that is willing to let go of the pain and feel the freedom of moving through peaceful waters once again.
I told the kids how many wonderful "tools" they have to help them get the "feeling" of swimming while still having some support. I love the noodles. Kids can actually practice their arm strokes while their entire body is supported. They are the "training wheels" of a swimmer. They can "swim" and get the full effect of swimming before going completely solo. They are able to "fake it till they make it". Spiritually speaking, our "training wheels" come in many forms. Sometimes we know what to say, we know all the right answers, but until we have felt that "aha!" moment inside our heart, we haven't mastered swimming the waters of our minds and hearts. The waters from mind to heart are sometimes the hardest to swim in.
Parting the Red Sea is one of my children's favorite bible stories. You can see how in "awe" they are that Moses could actually move the sea and split it in two so the people could cross safely. We all have a "Red Sea" that needs parting. It is our heart. Once you can change the heart's "thinking", you can clear a path to reach the mind. Touch a heart with the power of love. It is love that creates a sure and straight path to the mind. Once you reach the thoughts of a mind, the possibility of changing the world becomes possible, and the miracle of crossing over to the other side... the side of justice and love, is reached. While my children are spending a lot of time trying to learn how to swim to the other side of a pool, we are all spending a lot of time trying to swim to the "other side", the side of the kingdom, the shores of contentment, peace, and happiness. Sometimes the waters will be deep, other times shallow, and still other times choppy and stormy where the waves seem to go right over our heads.
I love the story of Moses. His name means "drawn from the water". His mother put what was most precious to her in a papyrus basket, her son, and placed him on a river bank. God has often been compared to the ocean... that His love is deeper than any ocean, His power stronger than the highest wave, and His action more swift than the fastest moving current. All of us were "drawn from the waters" of God's creation. We are that precious, that cared for, and that loved. God drew you and me out of the waters of his imagination, out of the waters of your mother's womb, and "nurses" our "infant-like" spirits, pleased at how we are growing, and cherishing how we are learning to "swim" in life's waters.
When the water seems too deep, and the river seems too wide, we can fall back on all the "techniques" we learned as spiritual swimmers. Breathe, pray, take one stroke at a time, envision yourself safely on the other side, stay focused on God, not the depth or conditions of the water. Go with the current, not against it. Safety first. Swim with others, never by yourself. Wear a life jacket and never dive head first into shallow water. And don't forget to take in the beauty of the water. Don't forget that you are a part of the depth, the length, and the breadth of the bluest and clearest ocean.
