The Pool

Anders began swimming lessons today. They're just a half hour in the afternoon. Five kids in a class. The instructor took turns helping each kid float or kick as she led them in a small circle.

There are three big steps to learning to swim: 1) getting in the water, 2) putting your head under water, 3) letting go of the edge of the pool.

It's a lot like following Jesus. You can sit on the edge and watch all you want, but at some point you've got to get in the water if you want to swim. Jesus invites all to follow Him. It's up to us to respond.

You can keep your head above water all you want, but you can't really learn to swim until you trust yourself and the water enough to put your head under it. Following takes a leap of faith if we want to go deeper at some point. We have to trust Jesus. We also have to trust ourselves--that we will excede in this new life we've been given without falling back in our old patterns.

And you can learn to put your head underwater and kick and all the other skills, but they don't matter unless you're willing to let go of the side of the pool. Following Jesus means that we have to leave a lot of our old ways behind--the unhealthy habits we developed that gave us security. Jesus invites us to go deeper with Him and experience something wonderfully new.