ELF – A New Road for 2018

I grew up in the water.  Swimming at the beach is my second nature.

My favorite time to swim is when the surf is rough, as waves rise and fall with great force, when it is clear the water is more powerful than me.  This is the best time for long and thrilling rides body surfing as waves carry you along while building a curling tower of water over your head.

Even when the waves overpower me, causing me to tumble in their tumult, punishing me as I crash into the sand scrapping a knee, I always walk away invigorated.

On these red-flag, storm warning days while lifeguards blow their whistles warning me to, “Get out, now” I plunge in head first, knowing that I am putting life on the line.

Life is for living, not surviving!  Miserable is the person who manages to survive without living.

This may explain why so many Christians are miserable.  They give in to the temptation to try and survive God, rather than to live-over-their -heads trusting in God’s care and providence.

C. S. Lewis, wrote of this inclination in his book The Weight of Glory:

This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal. 

Lewis, speaks of how so many of us miss the eternal joy which God wants us to enjoy in this life and the next because we refuse to go “All In” with Him.  In their resistance to trust God, 99% of all Christians never see a miracle because they never do anything which would demand that God act to save them, much less to provide for them, as He has promised.

In our risk-adverse, safety first nation, we are cautioned never to get in above our head.

I will never forget my Dad telling me when he almost drowned in knee deep water.  There’s a lesson in his near fatal adventure.

Stevie Nicks (of Fleetwood Mac fame) once sang, I’m over my head, but it sure feels nice.

Being in over-my-head with Jesus is always nice.  I agree with Stevie Nicks’ next line: “You can take me anytime you like.”

If you are not over-your-headwith Jesus, you are not with Him.  Jesus swims in the deep-end.

This being the case, CS Lewis offers this advice, “Swimming lessons are better than a lifeline to the shore.”