Swimming Lessons and Knowing God

This past summer the girls took swimming lessons again. Sometimes they ask why they need to keep going since they're comfortable and relatively confident in the pool.

We tell them being comfortable and confident in the water is easy when you can see the bottom and the sides and know exactly how far you have to swim before you can touch, either the edge with your hands or the bottom with your feet. Swimming in a lake with waves is very different.

Even if you can see the shore, you can't necessarily judge how long you'll have to swim before you can touch the bottom with your feet. You certainly can't SEE the bottom. The waves and the wind greatly affect your progress. It's very different from a pool.

We want our girls comfortable in both scenarios. Comfortable enough, at least, to not panic and to just start kickin' in the right direction. To know how to change strokes to prevent fatigue without losing forward progress.

Swimming lessons are so much like our need to study our Bibles to produce and aid spiritual growth and an ever-increasing understanding of God. A steadily growing trust in His plan, power, and providence.

So many times in life, we find ourselves in situations where we can't "touch."  Worse, there's often no shore in sight.  When we can't see our way through a circumstance, we need to be able to rely on something we DO know... and just keep kickin'. Without knowing how long we'll have to continue struggling against the waves, we need the calm assurance that we've been equipped to handle the situation because we know God's promises.  Because we know God.

But we don't get to know God automatically just like we can't swim automatically.  Being dumped into a tough situation doesn't make our faith strong just like being dumped off a boat in the middle of a lake doesn't make us strong swimmers.  Only lessons and practice will work.  And even if we WERE strong swimmers at one time, if it's been years since our arms and legs were used to regularly propel ourselves through the water, we may not have the necessary endurance to reach the shore when the need arises.  That, too, requires dedication.

I'll be the first to admit that even though it's fairly habitual for me to pick up my Bible and read several chapters on a daily basis, it still often just feels like an obligation and my mind has trouble with not really wanting to be there.  And yet as I continue to pray, asking God for an ever-increasing hunger for His Word, and as I continue to participate weekly over at The Bible in A Year blog (which forces me to concentrate ~ and even STUDY at times!!), I do see the results.

I am stronger spiritually; I believe my understanding of God is much deeper than it used to be.  I know my love for Him is.  I don't struggle with grasping certain aspects of His character that I always used to.  I have grown to love even some of the hard-to-understand passages ~ not necessarily because I understand them all now (a few I do; most I still don't), but because they are a part of God's Holy Word, which I have a deeper reverence and love for.

But I wouldn't if I wasn't routinely spending the time.

I'm 39 years old and I've been a professing Christian virtually all my life, but this change has only occurred in the last two years.  I've wasted a lot of time, thinking what I heard in church Sunday mornings was all I needed to know, relying on that weekly morsel to provide strength for whatever challenge came my way.  But really, how strong a swimmer can you possibly be if you only eat one good meal a week?  If you only get in one liesurely swim with friends every weekend?

Take some lessons.  It's never too late.  But even more importantly, start practicing regularly!  It won't make perfect, contrary to popular belief, but it will make PROGRESS.

Which is exactly what you want the next time you find yourself in the middle of a choppy lake with the shoreline barely in sight.

Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.

~ 2 Tim. 2:15 AMP