Swimming

My dad gave me some advice more than a few years back. I’m not even sure I remember the circumstances or context that solicited such wise counsel, but it’s stuck with me ever since. He said, “Kelly, you know when you’re swimming after a ball floating in the water? You know how every stroke just seems to push the ball farther and farther away?”. Being a lover of all things swim, I wholeheartedly acknowledged the frustrating feeling - especially when possession of that floating ball meant victory in a game against your little brother. He continued with, “...it’s only when you stop swimming after the ball so aggressively and you become still in the water that the ball just sort of drifts your direction…”. At the time I appreciated his example even though I didn’t really understand how it related to my situation. The harder you chase after something the farther away it gets, but being still and resting gets you your desired outcome. Got it, daddy. Kind-of. The only problem with this analogy is we live in a world that says the complete opposite.

Isn’t it just like Christ following Christians to swim profusely after the floating ball in the water only to experience the frustration of seeing it float farther and farther away? Am I the only one here? We do it in our marriages, with our kids, our churches, our ministries, and with the people around us. In our futile attempt to be ambassadors for Christ and His kingdom, we “go, go” and “do, do” until we’ve “gone, gone” and “done, done” without Him. Then we wonder why we’re burnt out, exhausted, depressed, frustrated, and feeling as if the Holy Spirit is non-existent in our lives. In our reckless pursuit of chasing after the things we think God wants us chasing after, we leave Him behind. We’re so caught up in the ‘doing’ that we miss the ‘being’. The results are burdens and pressures on us that were never meant for us to carry.

I’m writing from personal revelations here. I’ve realized, as of late, that I’ve tried for far too long to save everyone around me and control outcomes based on my muted perceptions. I’ve placed an enormous amount of pressure on myself to do the utmost for God as if my doing earns me His love and acceptance. But God, in His awesome grace and through His amazing ways, has shown me the areas where I’ve been swimming after the ball to no avail. The places where I need to stop and rest in Christ and just wait for the ball to float to me. I’ve wanted certain people in my life to know Jesus and experience what a life with Him really is so much so that I’ve gone off on my own and tried to make it happen without Him. I’ve prayed into ways I can accomplish my own desired outcomes with really no pause to see if this is the way God had in mind. Then Christ reminded me that apart from Him, I can do nothing. It is only through abiding in Him and Him in me that I bear much fruit (John 15:5). It’s this fruit that the world around me takes note of, marvels at, and possibly even questions. Perhaps, it’s the fruit from just being still and resting in God - just spending time with Jesus minus my agenda - that is the fruit that will drop the seed of Christ into someone’s life.

You see, our world has it so backwards. Even the church world. We’re all swimming after something whether we know it or not. We may be swimming after really good things - really lofty, God-honoring things, but if we’re swimming after these things without taking the time to rest in Jesus, we’re swimming apart from Him and we are swimming senselessly. When we do this, we are no different than the rebellious Israelites that the author of Hebrews 3 and 4 speaks about, who missed out on God’s rest altogether and wandered aimlessly through the wilderness for 40 years. They missed God’s promised rest because they wanted to do things on their time and in their way - thinking they knew better than God.

God makes it pretty simple for us: We’re either on His program doing things His way no matter how counter intuitive it may seem or we’re on our own program swimming aimlessly after something that will never be attained; the more we try, the farther away it gets. God offers us rest in Jesus Christ. He accomplished it all on the cross. The pressures of this world and the frustrations of feeling like you can’t make the world what you want it to be are pressures that were never meant for you to carry. They will utterly exhaust you unless you give them to the one who can handle them. Stop swimming and be still in the promised rest of Christ. God loves and desires for the people of this world to be saved more than you do. More than I do. He has a plan, and He has a way. If we can just stop swimming and rest in the presence of Jesus, we might just find the ball in our hands after all.