I believe God has blessed each person born onto this earth with various gifts and talents. Some of these are obvious while others take time to develop before you see the fruits of your labor. Since I stuttered from birth, God endowed me with a competitive spirit, physical abilities and a love for all sports. However, I only tasted failure in one sport, basketball. After being one of only 2 white players to make my 6th grade elementary team in inner city Wilmington, I was cut twice in Junior High. Afraid of rejection for a 3rd consecutive year, I decided to skip tryouts, too scared to find out if I could sink or swim?
If there is one thing you could say about the disciple Peter, he certainty was a character. God blessed Simon with personality, probably the loudest and most out-spoken of the 12 disciples based upon the 4 accounts of the gospels. This strong will led Peter to try things that the other disciples were either terrified of or unwilling to the take risk. Such is the case in Matthew 14:25-33 as Jesus walks on water toward a boat filled with disciples. Peter trusted Jesus enough to speak up, get out of the boat and for a moment actually walk on water. However, as soon as he began to take his eyes off Christ, focusing on a gust of wind, he quickly sank into the rough waters.
Its only fitting that I tried out for my high school swim team as a sophomore. Though I had experience swimming, I was only proficient in breast stroke. Since free style was the main stroke stressed in practices, I never completed a full practice all season. I spent more time sucking wind, choking on water I kept accidently swallowing and gasping for air after the warm up, let alone all the sprints. Despite the initial embarrassment, by the time I graduated I swam in nearly every high school event. In fact, my senior season I actually won a 100 yard butterfly race. Like Peter, I overcame my fears to get out of the boat and try something new.
C.S. Lewis devotes 2 chapters to faith in Book 3 of Mere Christianity, emphasizing proper Christian Behavior. Chapter 11 defines faith and chapter 12 illustrates practicing faith. Lewis uses an analogy of a child learning to swim to help visualize genuine faith. First, beginners need to see other children actually swim. This affirms within them, “hey, I can do this.” Second, learning how to swim takes practice by developing the key fundamentals to float and guide through the water. Finally, faith comes into play, believing that once your instructor lets go of you, you will swim and not sink. In life, the Holy Spirit is our spiritual swim coach, counseling our heart when we sink and sending angels to lift us above the wake left by trials. Each new day is like being on the starting block, waiting for the alarm to go off. Don’t be like the other disciples; get out of your comfort zone and take a leap of faith for Jesus! Sink or swim; the important thing is being obedient to God’s calling. Let me know how it goes.
by Jay Mankus
Just for laughs, I thought I would include my best but slow swimming times.
200 Individual Medley, 2:39 (somehow I won)
100 Free, 58 seconds (in practice)
100 Back, 1:09 (I don’t think I even placed)
100 Fly, 1:11 (I think the leader got DQ’ed to allow me to win)
100 Breast, 1:12 (This is the only event I qualified as an individual for states)
I swam 33 seconds for 50 breast, my leg of the 200 IM Relay which finished 3rd in states.
ExpressYourself4Him 