Learning to Swim

I grew up in a farming community in southwestern Ontario. Neither of my parents could swim and they were therefore very apprehensive whenever we were near water, afraid that we children might begin to drown and they could not save us. There was no opportunity for us children to take swimming lessons without driving a long distance to St Thomas.

When I was a teenager, a pool was built in my town. Dozens of people began to take swimming lessons. Adult “Learn to Swim” classes were full. I registered for such a class, but it was a disaster. The instructors were determined to have me putting my head under water. I was terrified and the whole evening was so uncomfortable that I vowed to never return.

I had a girlfriend who lived on a nearby farm. She knew how to float. One summer afternoon we went to the pool together. She stood behind me and I leaned back until I felt her arms under my back. I could feel that the water was holding me up. Gradually she took her arms away and I was floating. It was an amazing sensation to feel the power of the water holding me up. Soon I became confident that I would not sink, and it was just a matter of time before I could flip over and dog-paddle my way to the side of the pool. Today I am not a graceful swimmer and if you see me waving from a body of water assume I’m drowning and come and get me! But learning from my friend that the water would hold me up was a revelation.

Recently I have been reading David G. Benner’s book, Surrender to Love. Benner writes about the Perfect Love of God as a river that surrounds us. God asks us to rest back into that river and surrender to Him. If we have problems with surrender we think that we have a problem with our will. But Benner says that problems with surrender are problems of knowing God’s love, problems therefore of the heart, not the will. “Christian surrender is saying yes to God’s Yes! to me. It begins as I experience his wildly enthusiastic, recklessly loving affirmation of me.”

I think about how natural and easy floating is. We do not need to flail about to stay afloat. In fact, if we lift our heads above the water and no longer rest in it we begin to sink. We might thrash about trying to stay afloat, but eventually we will tire and our efforts will drown us. Likewise, our efforts to earn God’s love are always counter productive. We never discover that we do not need to do anything to stay afloat until we let go. That is surrender.

So no matter what is happening in my life, I must open my spiritual eyes and see that I am in the river of His love and that my staying afloat and moving along are God's responsibility. All I have to do is surrender. Just like in that pool dozens of years ago, I lean back and feel the water holding me up. As long as I rest, I won't sink. God's love will never let me down.