I need to Stop Swimming
Last week, in our team meeting, we started talking about a man who was caught in the undercurrent of a waterfall. The story is that he tried THREE TIMES to swim out to the calmer waters, but all three times, he was pulled back by the force of the waterfall. Eventually, he succumed to the power of the water, and he drowned.
His lifeless body was pulled down into the deep water at the base of the waterfall, and then later, it popped up in the pool of calm waters just outside the reaches of the undercurrent. We talked about how we live like this sometimes…how we find ourselves swimming against the current…fighting the forces that seem to want to take life from us. We swim, and we swim. We think if we can just get to that calm water…everything will be fine!
It’s a crazy thought that if we would just give up…stop swimming in the direction we THINK represents life…let ourselves be pulled in the direction that SEEMS like death to us…that we would pop up later in the calm waters.
How often do we swim so hard toward what we think we need and fight what seems like death? Maybe we should stop swimming…let the water carry us down…die…in order to resurface in better places.
I know this is a message we hear over and over again. But you know…as I sat in that meeting, I realized that I do it all the time. I swim so hard toward what I think I need. I don’t trust when I feel like I’m dying. I think I know what’s best.
Where is the life of surrender? Why is it so hard to trust and go with the current? Why don’t I believe that the current in my life is the spirit of God living in me and directing my ways? Why do I keep swimming?
“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42: 7,8
