We’re lake people, here in Holland, Michigan. We know what it is to dip a toe into that frigid Lake Michigan water and shiver, even though it’s July – wondering if we have the strength to actually go for it. We feel the waves over our ankles and then our knees, and we think, “It’s hot as blazes and I’m dying to cool off, but I know what that initial plunge is going to feel like. Maybe I’ll go back up to my towel and just look at the water.”
Water can interact with the human body in so many ways. The water envelops and absorbs the body’s tension. The movement of waves forces the body to contend with it. When you get tired, you can float on it and drift into stillness.
When you emerge, you feel uniquely exhausted, but in a good way. And you’re able to relax and just be.
Why are humans drawn to water like this?
Water cleanses. It restores. It baptizes. It refreshes. It causes things to grow.
We go to the water to awaken as well as calm the senses. One can escape life’s pressures here too because you can’t take ever-beckoning distractions into the water.
For a time, we can be present, with ourselves, with family, and with God. Water reminds us what it means to be fully alive and content with where we are, regardless of circumstances.
It seems to me that in this particular season, what we all need is to dive into the water. Focusing on all of the worries, the discouraging things, the frustrations, the resentments – it won’t make them better. Difficult things must be born, of course, but we must also be able to live in the midst of them.
Stress and anxiety have a physical impact on us, and it’s not just in our heads. The body remembers. Muscles tighten and form knots that won’t go away. The body refuses to calm down. The hands and feet want to tap endlessly to expend some of the pent up energy that needs to be expressed somehow.
But it won’t work. Because the body remembers. Pent up energy can’t be expelled by ignoring it and distracting yourself on your device. It only reinforces and prolongs it.
And there’s one other important aspect of being in the water: silence.
Outside the water, there’s noise. Crash of waves, screaming seagull, shouting children, hum of the motorboat, the smell of algae.
But when you dive your head into the water there is just … silence.
Diving into the water is a way to encounter God in the midst of inner or outer tempests. If we want to thrive in the midst of difficult things, we have to dive into the water.
Consider Psalm 77.
The Psalmist describes his anguish – staying up all night, unable to sleep, asking God for help, feeling like He isn’t there.
Then the questions: “God, have you abandoned me? Will anything ever be okay again?” And then a flood of memories – all of the times that God has been faithful.
Then an image of the wild storms – the crashes and lightning and whirlwinds. And just as things are really heating up into total destruction, a sudden realization…
God’s path wasn’t where we thought it would be. God’s path was through the sea – under it. We couldn’t see it before, but His footprints were under the water. In order to see those footprints, we would have to immerse ourselves in the water.
If we want to be okay and at peace and hopeful in a world that is often not okay, we’re going to have to dive into the water.
At Calvary, one of the ways we serve families is by removing the distractions of life that can keep our kids from meeting with God.
We help them do the real work of relationship with themselves, others, ideas, and God. It’s hard. Real work is hard, but it’s worth it.
This is how Calvary is investing in your children and, respectfully, with you. Join in. Unplug. Invest in things that build joy and contentment. Go do real things.
Dive in!
Warmly,