Just Keep Swimming

It’s hot outside. I mean really hot outside. Like “fry an egg on the sidewalk” hot (has anyone actually tried to do that?). And I am sure you all have your preferred way to “beat the heat.” Maybe it’s downing an ice-cold glass of lemonade or slurping on a frozen Popsicle. Maybe it’s dumping cold water on your head or avoiding the heat altogether by sitting in a nice air-conditioned house. But if you’re like me, the best way to beat the heat is to go swimming. I love going to the pool on a hot day! And thankfully we have a great neighborhood pool just a two blocks from our house. There’s something about swimming that calms and cools the body and the soul. Swimming in a pool is relaxing and refreshing and swimming in a lake or ocean can be exhilarating. It really doesn’t matter to me... if there’s a body of water big enough to contain my body, I’ll swim in it. As much as I love swimming there is one time when I’d rather avoid being in the water and that’s during a storm. I can handle the rain, but a full-out storm is a whole other story. And that’s because swimming in a storm can be incredibly dangerous... even deadly. Yet that’s exactly what Jesus had his disciples do. In Mark 4 we read about how the disciples were told by Jesus to cross over to the other side of a lake and, while they were “swimming,” a massive storm came and over took their boat.

That story makes me think: “How many times has Jesus led me into a storm?” I’ve certainly been lost in the sea of life... and I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you’ve had moments like that too, moments where you’ve felt lost, drifting out to sea, or stuck in the middle of a storm. You know what I’m talking about, right? Those times in your life when you felt blown and tossed by the wind, only to be left to drown? So what do you during those times? Just keep swimming.

I know it’s not logical to keep swimming when you’re drowning, but that’s essentially what Jesus told the disciples when they woke him up on the lake that evening. They said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” (Mark 4:38). And then this happens... which was great... Jesus wakes up (never mind that he was sleeping through the storm) and rebukes the wind and the waves, he puts that storm in its place to the point where it says there was “a great calm” and then he turns to his disciples and says: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40).

Jesus doesn’t lead us to the other side just to let us drown. He doesn’t abandon us when the waves start creeping up around us. Why? Because he is right there swimming beside us. When the storms of life roll in, and they will, and the metaphorical seas get rough. Take Jesus’ advice and just keep swimming. Your faith is what will bring you through to the other side. Happy July!