Poolside Proverbs

Yesterday I had my first swim lesson. Not with a certified swim instructor, but with the woman who has taught me most of what I know. Because here's the truth of it: I can't swim. 

It isn't because I was ever afraid of swimming, although I'm still not keen on having my face underwater. But growing up, I just never received an opportunity to learn. 

Still, never learning how to swim was one of my biggest regrets in life. Growing up, it caused me to miss out on a lot of birthday parties, a lot of summer parties, a lot of sleepovers, making up excuses not to go because I was so embarrassed and ashamed that I was past grade school and I didn't know how to swim. It was one of my biggest secrets. I never told my parents how embarrassed it made me feel and I never told people that I couldn't swim. I wanted to learn, but I also didn't want to because I was too ashamed to ask for anyone to teach me. My pride just wouldn't let me. 

But I'm going to Hawaii in two weeks. To an island, a place completely surrounded by water known for its beaches, its surfing, its snorkeling, and its scuba diving. A place where it would kind of be helpful to know how to swim. At least a little bit. So yesterday I tried learning how. And I learned a lot from it. 

I acquired a massive new respect for great swimmers and divers because they must have some STRONG muscles. Just sayin'. That stuff is WORK! I was so sore this morning. Talk about good exercise!

I learned that water and eyeliner don't mix well. 

I learned what an essential part of life water is. We drink it, we bathe in it, we float around in it for fun. What a marvelous invention God made of H2O molecules!

I learned that I LOVE water and that I love being IN the water. (That makes me basically a mermaid, right?)

I learned that sure, I can't swim like an Olympic swimmer can. I can't be a lifeguard or a swim instructor or a certified diver. But you know what? There are some things that I know how to do that an Olympic swimmer can't. I learned that there's no reason in the world why we should ever feel ashamed for not knowing how to do something or not knowing answers. That's silly. We can't compare our skills and abilities to anyone else's. There's always new things we all have to learn and we shouldn't ever be embarrassed or afraid of other people's opinions or judgement to ask for help or for instruction. That thing you've been wanting to try? Go for it. You're never too old and no one else is going to chase down that dream for you. 

I learned that sometimes- dare I say, a lot of times- God calls us to places that we aren't necessarily prepared for in the moment. He calls us to places and things that take us from our comfort zone and that sometimes require us to learn new things. Maybe a new language, a new skill, a new culture. Or that maybe requires us to allow Him to do a new work in our hearts and cultivate in us a new character quality or fruit of the Spirit. I know He's had to work in my heart a lot of humility this year for me to be ready to serve Him in Hawaii. The things He calls us do and the places He leads us to go aren't always easy- change is difficult, especially if you never anticipated it- but like in water, we have to learn to simply trust Him, stop fighting, and allow the current of His Spirit to move us. He knows what He's doing. 

I learned that mastering new skills is sometimes more difficult as an adult than it is as a child. Because as adults, we're so logical. We get so caught up in our heads, trying to rationalize everything in our own happy little worlds. Always trying to find balance and reason and make sense. But sometimes, that doesn't always work. Like with breathing: breathing is so natural, but if you stop and focus on it, you set your natural breathing pattern off. Like with swimming: your body mass will float in water, but if you think too much about it, trying too hard to float, you'll sink every time. Like with God: so many people reject believing in Him simply because they can't reason out His ways. The ways of the Lord are mysterious sometimes and force us to have faith and just to trust. It isn't for us to always have the answers and muddle over, trying to make sense in our limited human minds things that are supernatural and of an unearthly realm. And even like with opportunities and love: the Lord may open doors in our lives or bring someone into our path, but we get so distracted, focusing so much on it and overthinking, that we lose courage and miss them entirely. 

And I learned that "Rome wasn't built in a day." I didn't learn to be a great swimmer yesterday. I can do a mean "motorboat" kick across the pool with a kick board now, I learned a breaststroke, and I came pretty close to swimming a few strides on my own without anyone or anything to balance my front end. But I still can't swim. After three hours straight spent in the water, my body was tired. I didn't have the core strength, the energy, or mainly, the practice to keep afloat. And at first, that was really hard for me. I couldn't kick my legs one more time, I was exhausted and my muscles burned so badly, but I didn't wanna leave. Because I had gone there to learn to swim and I hadn't learned yet. But I had to remind myself to release the impossible expectations of my perfectionism and to be gentle and patient with myself. Maybe I'll come back from Hawaii with more practice and know how to swim, but nobody learns in one day. It wasn't for lack of trying and it wasn't for lack of intelligence, I had to remind myself. I'm a fast learner- I learned as much as I did within the first hour- but I physically wasn't capable of learning to swim well all in one afternoon. I think all of us can lean toward a tendency sometimes to be too hard on ourselves, be it in skills or abilities or performance or in spiritual growth. But the Lord is always loving and patient with us in our learning and training and becoming more like Him. "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103:13&14 So why shouldn't we be gentle with ourselves as well?

We all have a journey. Some of us are farther along in that journey than others but we all have a past from whence we came. Life is about celebrating the small victories and milestones of that journey one step at a time and taking pride in how far we've come, who we've become, and who we're still becoming. Be kind to yourself. And remember that every journey begins with the first step.

I'm so deeply thankful for the person He's slowly made me into this year and for all that He has planned yet to do in my life. Revving up now for an adventure with Him that I know is going to change me forever. 

Shattered World

Look at these pictures. At these faces. Look at them hard. Type their content into Google and look at the images you see. 

And I ask you: 

Is this okay?

If you're anything like me, you live comfortably in the American upper middle-class. You live the American Dream. 

I look around me and I see thousands of people just like me. I see people running around town this time of year, filling their shopping carts with the best deals they can find. I see people rummaging through the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales to get the latest electronics and portable devices. I see people stuffing their refrigerators with food for the holidays. I see families laughing together and attending Christmas parties in ugly sweaters with gifts to exchange tucked under their arms. 

I see people just like me. Living a delusion. 

This American Dream of prosperity, health, abundance, and wealth we live... It isn't real. 

We live in a fantasy world and some of us like it that way. Others are simply naive. Some of us know what's going on in the world around us, across the globe, across town, across the street, but we don't want to hear it. We don't want to hear it because it dampens our high of happiness and health and riches. So we choose to bury our head in the sand. We distract ourselves with the pleasures our fantasy world has to offer. Fancy dinners, elaborate concertos, high-class museums, luxurious resort getaways. We distract ourselves and shelter our happiness like a trophy in a glass case. 

We don't want to think about the children being beaten and bruised in their homes every day. The young girls and boys being sold into the sex trafficking industry and the women selling their bodies to men in the dark alleys of our city streets or in pornography film studios. The refugees displaced from their homes and from all that they know. The victims of war attacks losing their family, their possessions, everything they own. The impoverished children falling ill from disease and malnutrition. The mothers and fathers who have no more tears left to cry as they watch the lives taken from their young children too soon. The men and women who have defended our freedoms now penniless on our streets with no more than a bag full of belongings to their name. The teenager pregnant and alone, seeking to abort the precious life conceived and formed within her body by the hands of a real and living and loving God. The Christians crucified, beheaded, raped, tortured, burned alive for the sake of not denying their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The soldiers of ISIS and their families, lost and so blind but still so deeply loved by our Father in Heaven, our Savior of grace Who died for their sins. The silent screams of their souls for help with every slice of their knives and every shot of their guns as they wander so blind by darkness toward a future of damnation and suffering, torment and grief in a lake of fire for eternity. 

But we don't want to think about them. We don't want to think about the reality these individuals live every day. 

Until it affects us and our family. 

Maybe I'm the only egoistic human to have done this. But maybe I'm not. 

When did we as believers, as the body of Christ... When did we as humanity, as a culture and society, begin caring more about the turkey on our table, the biggest presents under our Christmas tree, the newest iPhone released by Apple and the latest gossip of celebrities than we do about the orphans and the widows, the poor and the hungry, and the lost souls that are going to spend eternity in Hell. 

When?

When did this happen?

When did we become so selfish, so apathetic, so judgmental, so revengeful and so calloused?

Those who are like me, we can't continue to deny reality until it comes knocking on the doorstep of our own happy little worlds. This American Dream will not last forever and its moment on the scene of time is drawing to a close. 

A new era is dawning and the reality is our world is being shaken. The world in which we live mourns and the haunting cries of those slain continue to ring out throughout the nations. Their cold blood runs like a scarlet thread through our hearts, woven into the fabric of our humanity. Lives are lost, innocent, as our world is shattered with war and terror and violence and threats. Blood is on the hands of men so devoted to their religion but so sincerely lost. So blinded to the Truth. And we mourn. A darkness has covered our land and we desperately need a Light to break forth and bring hope to the broken-hearted. To penetrate through the cloud of darkness that has rested upon our world and upon the hearts of men that they may see the Truth that can set them free and give them an eternal hope. 

We live in this world. Beyond our American upper-class, this is the world in which we live right now. Here in this moment. Here in this time. 

And the Church has a decision to make. The Church has center-stage. People are hungry and heavy-burdened and are looking for a peace and a security beyond themselves, beyond the government, beyond alliances. All eyes are on us. 

What will we choose in these days of trial? Hatred or Love?

The world has enough hate. 

I choose love. 

This season it's easy to get caught up in the busyness and the festivities of the holidays. So preoccupied by our own little worlds. 

But please let's not hide. Let's not seek escape into our distractions. Let's not misuse the blessings of the Lord as a distraction. Let's not turn our heads away. 

We are living in a crucial time in history and more than ever, we need to pray and to reach out to the world around us in love. 

It might break our hearts. It might bring us to tears. It might make us cry out and question God "Why?" Why so much suffering, why is that not us instead. It might make us beg the Lord to return now. It might someday cost us our own lives for the sake of our faith. 

But the world is looking at us, the Church, the Body of believers. And it's looking for an example of love in a world now that only knows hate. 

Now is not the time to turn a blind eye to the events of the world around us. Now is not the time to hate those who mock and scorn, those who torture and persecute us. 

Now is the time to make a decision. 

May we choose love. Love as the Father loves us and washes every stain and blemish from His Bride with the ransom of His blood... so that we are made clean white as snow to show others the way to His Truth and glory. 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16&17