Let’s Dive In

I spent many of my summers in St. Louis with my grandma.  I got quality time with grandma, and let’s be real, she was free childcare for my parents.  Although we traveled to St. Louis every summer until my grandmother moved back to Arkansas, that was not the extent of our summer expeditions.

My grandma would take us on grand adventures while we were in St. Louis.  Bible Study Brother and I enjoyed going to the store, Ventures.  The outside of the building had large black and white stripes.  I would be thrilled to see those stripes.  I loved any shopping expedition and Bible Study Brother was determined to procure toys from every store imaginable.  He was a wild one, and I spent many a shopping trip going under racks to drag him out.

The fun didn’t stop there.  We would visit my uncles.  We would go to the library.  I’d get to check out books to feed my literary habit.  We would go to the laundry mat to wash clothes.  We would get ice cream.  We’d eat White Castle.  And we’d go to the swimming pool.

Have I mentioned that Bible Study Brother was rambunctious?  Well the pool was no exception for his shenanigans.  Although he couldn’t swim, he was convinced that he could.  No one could tell him otherwise.  In his head, he was a swimming aficionado.  In her wisdom, my grandma decided that swimming lessons would be a great idea for us both.

I was excited to learn how to swim.  I was a bit nervous, but my instructor was calm and patient.  She baby stepped me through each phase to build my confidence.  And by the end, I could do it!  I was swimming.  Not so for dear sweet Bible Study Brother.  While I was learning, he was busy telling the instructor how to swim.  I told ya’ll he was already an aficionado.  Swimming lessons were for babies.  He did it his way, and in the end, well…he couldn’t swim.

Bible Study Mama didn’t take his failure laying down.  Bible Study Brother would learn how to swim….or else.  When we returned to Little Rock, she took us both to the YMCA for round two of swimming lessons.  Since I already knew how to swim, she took my lessons to the next level.  I was going to learn how to dive.  Let’s be clear, she didn’t have ambitions for me to become an Olympic level athlete.  But she also wasn’t going to let me just sit around and watch my brother.  She wanted me to be active.  So, diving lessons it was.

I might not have mentioned this before, but I’m not a fan of heights.  I’m clumsy.  Heights are heights, and falling hurts.  My first time diving into the pool was terrifying.  And exhilarating.  I did it!  I waited for a second after the dive to see which direction was up.  I broke the surface and swam to the side.  And I didn’t look back.  I was hooked.

Meanwhile, Bible Study Brother was in the shallow end of the pool with a no-nonsense personal instructor.  Fun and games were over.  Between Bible Study Mama’s piercing looks from the side of the pool and his fierce instructor, there was no way Bible Study Brother was going to fail.  He learned to swim despite his best attempts not to.

Everyone needs a Bible Study Mama in their life.  A person who wants the best for you.  A person who pushes you to new levels.  Higher heights.  A person who wants more for you than you could ever think of for yourself.  A person that sees potential in you and wants you to reach that potential.  I’m glad to say that I have another person like that in my life.  His name is Jesus.

Some of us come to Him easily.  We may be a little hesitant, but we push past our fear and decide to trust Him anyway.  In His goodness, Jesus surrounds us with people who nourish our new faith.  They hold our hands and walk us through.  We feel like we’ve arrived.  We’ve done enough.  And then, Jesus shows us the diving board.  And we have to make the decision to follow Him into the deep.  He calls us to dive in.

Some of us get to Jesus with a bit more resistance.  We’re rambunctious.  We know best.  In our eyes, we’ve handled our lives just fine up until this point.  There is no need for instruction.  We’ve got it.  Then the waters of life get deep, and we have to take a crash course lesson in survival.  Jesus is still gracious.  He doesn’t let us fail.  He teaches us to swim.

The choice is ours.  We can let the waters overtake us or accept Jesus’s invitation the first time He extends His hand.  I don’t know about ya’ll, but I’m diving in.  #wepreach