Not too long ago I was reading an article by Craig Dykstra in the April 8, 2008 Christian Century magazine. It was really an article about the nature of pastoral ministry, but the author said something so profound about the nature of God. So the following analogy belongs to Mr. Dykstra, but the experience I want to share with you, dear Reader, is my own.

Do you remember what it was like to learn to swim? Maybe your parents signed you up for swim lessons like mine did. I remember those first few classes when, at 5 years old, I dropped the security of my beach towel and stood at the edge of the shallow end of the pool with my classmates. I shivered with arms tightly crossed and knees knocking, not from cold but sheer fright. What if I can’t learn to swim and all the others laugh and make fun of me? What if I sink to the bottom and can’t come back up?

My teacher urged me to take a step and leap into the water where she waited close by.  After a long pause I finally jumped in, becoming a tight, stiff, water-crashing ball. I was right – I went straight to the bottom! But I soon found that I could push myself up. In fact, I could stand since we were only in the shallow end of the pool. My teacher laughed at my surprise, and coaxed me to arch backward and allow her to hold me up as I lay upon the water on my back. I needed to learn to relax and know that as I did so, the water would hold me up. But each time I felt her supporting hand move away, I stiffened right up again, legs and torso forming a panicky V. Down I would go again!

As I recall, it took my young classmates and I a very long time to learn to float. We had to first experience and know that the water was buoyant, that it would do the hard work of holding us up. In a very real sense, we had to come to a place of trust. We couldn’t just listen to our teacher about the principles of floating. We had to experience it ourselves in a deeply personal way. We had to let go of all that tenseness; we had to give ourselves to the water, trusting that it would hold us up, that we could indeed float!

By the end of that summer floating became my favorite pastime. What fun it was to swim and kick and play and then just turn on my back and just float. Everything became so serene and still as I looked up at the big blue sky and felt the ripples of water lap at me from head to toe. I also learned that if I ever got over to the deep end and felt too tired to swim back to the shallow end or the ladder not to panic – just turn over and float a while until strength returned. Without effort, I knew the water’s buoyancy would hold me up.

And so it is with faith. God is buoyant and promises to hold us up. Just as I learned in my swim class so long ago, we cannot just listen  to others as they explain the principles of knowing God. We must experience it ourselves in a deeply personal way. Many times we are just like little children learning to swim for the first time. We come to the edge shivering with anxiety and fear, holding on to ourselves for dear life. And by some grace we take the plunge. We experience God’s very real presence. We come to know that we can unbind ourselves, let go, and trust the buoyancy of God. In all our struggles, in all our joy, in all our sufferings, and in all prosperity, God’s buoyancy never changes. God will always hold us up as he has promised us through Christ our Lord.

So go ahead – take the plunge! Turn yourself over, relax, and float upon the living waters of our gracious and buoyant God!