There are two kinds of Jersey Shore girls…the kind who work as life guards in the summer and the ones who lay on the beach and only get wet when the sand gets too hot. I would be more the second type. I don't like to swim. At least not for exercise. So, no one is more surprised than I am at the recent turn of events.
I had to get in the water if I wanted to get back to what I REALLY wanted to do. Running. SO, I obediently went to water PT for weeks during the winter. I didn't trust myself to show restraint once I was released from the surgeon to resume all activities (and frankly, neither did my family). So, I had a friend show me deep water running. In the pool. Where the goal is to not actually GO anywhere. But it was a way to get back to running, without actually running.
Then, one day I was stuck in a lane where I could not "run". SO, I swam. 10 whole laps! I could not move my arms the next day. The swimming thing was SO not for me. But I needed to keep doing it, in order to get back to what I really loved - running.
The next week I did 24 laps and did not bother with "running". 2/3 mile. I was not even sore the next day.
Today I did 36 laps. A whole mile. Imperfect, ungraceful. Using only the arms and legs God gave me. What is going on??? I hate swimming - I am a runner!
Swimming is different from running. No music (water proof wireless headphones???). You have to create your own rhythm. You have to sync your breathing so you don't gulp mouthfuls of water - and you NEED to breathe and fill those lungs or you will run out of steam. It's also quiet - like in the "I can hear the inside of my brain" kind of quiet. For a while, you are so focused on breathing at the right time, you don't think about anything else. But funny - after 20 laps or so, you are in a rhythm, and you don't have to focus on breathing as much. It all just sort of works. You can teach an old body new tricks!
And then today it hit me - right there in the pool. This is just like our Christian journey. We start off, and at first are focused on the basics - just get to church, get familiar with the bible, find time to pray. We practice at this - and in time hopefully it becomes part of our lives that we don't have to think about. And then we add to it. Bible study, service, deeper prayer. Each time a new layer that we have to get used to, but that over time becomes part of our personal rhythm.
But we can get in a rut. We think we are doing enough. We want to go back to the things we know, that we do well. Like running. Then what?
Here is what I don't like about the pool: I don't know what I'm doing; it makes me uncomfortable. I feel like I am making a fool of myself, but I do it anyway.
And today, it renewed my energy. It gave me peace. And it gave me affirmation that some times the thing we need to do is just the thing that we think we have no idea how to do, the thing that makes us uncomfortable, the thing that makes us look like fools - but we do it anyway. Kind of like our Christian journey - we might not know what we are doing; it can be uncomfortable; we might look like fools. But we know we need to do it anyway.
I got in the pool cause I wanted to get back to running. And now I can't wait to go back to the pool.
"The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the
purpose of the Lord that will be established." (Proverbs 19:21)
