My childhood summers centered around swimming. I remember swimming lessons in cold lakes that were not necessarily fun, but that increased my ability to swim at a very young age. These lessons gave me confidence, so I have not been intimated by deep water, even when I could not see what was below me. I felt sure that I could swim to safety, if necessary,
As children we often are pushed, however gently, in a direction that a parent sees as valuable, or that they themselves love. In my case, my mother was a swimmer, so I recall with complete clarity the day she took my sister and I to look at pool options for our backyard. In the end, we found ourselves with a pool that had an 8 ft.deep end and allowed my mother to swim laps. Swimming occupied our summer days and evenings because now we had lights that allowed us to swim as long as we desired. I was 10 years old when we got our pool and I often would swim to the deep end and just lay on the bottom, for as long as my breath could sustain me, and look up at the sky above though all the water that was in-between.
How comfortable are you when you are called into the deep? Is your comfort level based on how adept you are in the water or on who is actually doing the calling?
The Lord has recently been speaking to me about going deeper and further with Him. He has been reminding me how we can often be so comfortable with where we are that it becomes a place of settling. In other words, we are playing it safe and have become settlers when we were called to be pioneers.
For many years we sailed on a spring/moutain fed lake that was so cold, and so deep, that you understood the moment you got in that you were out of your depth. Wisdom told me, that in the case of this water, it was not wise to swim alone.
There is an interesting facet of deep water. We are often clueless as to how deep it actually is, but once we are in the water we are committed, and how deep it is has very little relevance. What matters is that there is a purpose to being in that deep and that we are not alone. We may not be able to stand, but there is One who can!
My past experiences, or better yet testimonies, tell me that when I have done all I can do, when there is nothing else that is within my ability to do, I am in a very good place. It means that I am in total reliance upon the Lord, which means that I can surrender to the deeper, and the further, knowing that what will come from it is more than I could ever expect or imagine. I know I will be changed in this surrender because the freedom what will be birthed within me will be my assurance for the next time I am called to go deeper and further still. When that happens I will have only one option. I will jump right in!
Isaiah 48:17 This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit (benefit), who leads you in the way that you should go.”
Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust and faith in You.