Dive In!

I enjoy swimming. Although I am not as sleek of a swimmer as I used to be, there is something noble for a slightly overweight 41 year old man being able to cut through the warm water of a July swimming pool. Some of my most memorable moments as a young boy took place in the water.

Here’s a few: the summers on the Cahaba River swimming with dangerous copperhead snakes-that was awesome. Spending the summer at Lake Martin fishing and swimming-that was the life. Getting swimming lessons as a small kid from an older high school maiden I had admired for awhile-have mercy. There was the time I almost drowned in the Decatur wave pool-apart from nearly losing my life, it was a fun time. There was also the time where my friends and I went to a nearby apartment complex’s swimming pool and played the old favorite “Marco Polo” when suddenly out of nowhere, a young woman, who was extremely intoxicated, completely undressed herself and asked us boys if she could, “join the game.”

There was one event I remember above the rest. Our youth group had taken a day trip to a water park in north Alabama. As we arrived at the park, I saw it. It was the most hideous yet intimidating figure I had beheld in some time- the HIGH DIVE. Its imposing figure seemed to stretch beyond the heavens. All my friends were bragging about how they were going to “take the dive”.

Not me. As skinny as I was, I was partial to my body being in one piece. I had heard horror stories of kids just like me “taking the dive” and wind up hitting the concrete instead of the water. I was going to play it safe. One by one I saw my friends “take the dive”. Sure their ascent up the high dive staircase must have been ominous but it paled in compassion to the thrill of accomplishment after they hit the water and swam to the safe side.

Life is full of “high dives”. We all at some level face those imposing figures that try our instincts and test the very core of our faith. Yet the Christian faith is just that; “faith”. I am fearful that there are many instances where my Christian experience is just the opposite of faith. Like the kid who stood afar off and watched from where it was safe, I believe there are times I tend to do the same. I want to believe God. I know intellectually what His word says but when I stand at the base of the “high dives”, do I trust and obey His beckoning to “Come out to the deep part” or am I ok with saying, “Thanks Jesus for the invite but I’m ok here where it’s safe.”

Safe is not bad. It’s just….just…safe. Nothing extraordinary, nothing spectacular, nothing radical…it’s just safe. Am I ok with that?

Steve Jobs, Co-founder and CEO of Apple, has no doubt revolutionized the world of technology. In the early stages of Apple, Jobs was looking for someone to assist in the leadership and marketing of the company. Jobs turned to John Sculley, vice president of Pepsi. Jobs approached Sculley on numerous occasions to assist him in revolutionizing the computer world. Each time he was met with indifference and steep demands by Sculley. Jobs, being persistent, approached Sculley with one more appeal. Listen to the account Sculley gives of that meeting: “And then he (Jobs) looked up at me (Sculley) and just stared at me with the stare that only Steve Jobs has and he said, ‘Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?’ I just gulped because I knew I would wonder for the rest of my life what I would have missed.”

So what are the “high dives” that stand before you? Are you going to stand off to the side where it’s safe or are you going to trust our God with every fiber of your soul and dive in head first in the deep end of faith? Don’t wonder for the rest of your life what you would have missed. Dive in!

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6