I enjoy being active- always have I guess. I'm not able to exercise as much as I want to, but I try to stay fit. Now that we are members of the 'Y' we've been doing a LOT of swimming. A couple things happened recently that taught me about Grace. A dear friend of mine, who also struggled with legalism shared her testimony with me. She had all these rules she lived by. One of them was extreme modesty. Dresses all the time and absolutely NO bathing suits or co-ed swimming allowed. I have a lot of respect for this lady- she really loves Jesus. One morning while praying, she feels the Holy Spirit asking her to take a diving class. She thought it was crazy and put it out of her mind, but for weeks the Still Small Voice kept asking. "This can't be the Holy Spirit, because in order to take a diving class I would have to wear a bathing suit!" she thought. However, the nagging feeling wouldn't let her go. Eventually, she signed up for a diving class. She shows up, totally embarrassed, trembling inside- still unsure if this is really the voice of God speaking. After several attempts off the board, she discovered long, baggy shorts & T-shirts over a bathing suit don't work well for diving- kept coming off. So eventually she was just wearing her swim suit. Weeks passed, she began to relax & enjoy herself. Then one day, while standing at the end of the board getting ready for a dive, the Still Small Voice said, "See all that water? It's like My Grace. When you dive in, feel it surround you and understand how much I love you." She went off that board and as she broke the water's surface, she TRULY understood Grace! Needless to say, she's been a much happier person since. Instead of stressing out all the time, she's resting in Jesus. I've had a similar experience. While swimming, the same little Voice whispered to my heart. Jesus calls Himself 'Living Water' for a reason. When you are really thirsty you don't just take a polite little sip, you guzzle. On a hot day, you don't just dip a toe in, you immerse yourself in the water to feel refreshed. So I swim with my children and watch them jump repeatedly into the pool. They love going under, being totally immersed and feeling the water bear them up to the surface- a good object lesson. My children enjoy carrying me around in the pool. They think it's neat that I'm SO light! I like the weightlessness I feel in the water. The other day as I was getting out of the pool, each step I took, the heavier I felt as I lost bouyancy. For years, I carried the full weight of my sin on my own shoulders. Now I'm giving my pain, my fears & my struggle to Jesus. In a sense my soul knows weightlessness. The burden is light!! Dive into Grace and see for yourself...
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Dive Into It!
I enjoy being active- always have I guess. I'm not able to exercise as much as I want to, but I try to stay fit. Now that we are members of the 'Y' we've been doing a LOT of swimming. A couple things happened recently that taught me about Grace. A dear friend of mine, who also struggled with legalism shared her testimony with me. She had all these rules she lived by. One of them was extreme modesty. Dresses all the time and absolutely NO bathing suits or co-ed swimming allowed. I have a lot of respect for this lady- she really loves Jesus. One morning while praying, she feels the Holy Spirit asking her to take a diving class. She thought it was crazy and put it out of her mind, but for weeks the Still Small Voice kept asking. "This can't be the Holy Spirit, because in order to take a diving class I would have to wear a bathing suit!" she thought. However, the nagging feeling wouldn't let her go. Eventually, she signed up for a diving class. She shows up, totally embarrassed, trembling inside- still unsure if this is really the voice of God speaking. After several attempts off the board, she discovered long, baggy shorts & T-shirts over a bathing suit don't work well for diving- kept coming off. So eventually she was just wearing her swim suit. Weeks passed, she began to relax & enjoy herself. Then one day, while standing at the end of the board getting ready for a dive, the Still Small Voice said, "See all that water? It's like My Grace. When you dive in, feel it surround you and understand how much I love you." She went off that board and as she broke the water's surface, she TRULY understood Grace! Needless to say, she's been a much happier person since. Instead of stressing out all the time, she's resting in Jesus. I've had a similar experience. While swimming, the same little Voice whispered to my heart. Jesus calls Himself 'Living Water' for a reason. When you are really thirsty you don't just take a polite little sip, you guzzle. On a hot day, you don't just dip a toe in, you immerse yourself in the water to feel refreshed. So I swim with my children and watch them jump repeatedly into the pool. They love going under, being totally immersed and feeling the water bear them up to the surface- a good object lesson. My children enjoy carrying me around in the pool. They think it's neat that I'm SO light! I like the weightlessness I feel in the water. The other day as I was getting out of the pool, each step I took, the heavier I felt as I lost bouyancy. For years, I carried the full weight of my sin on my own shoulders. Now I'm giving my pain, my fears & my struggle to Jesus. In a sense my soul knows weightlessness. The burden is light!! Dive into Grace and see for yourself...
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5 comments:
Beautiful illustration! I'm "taking the plunge" again right now as I type this. The old Gospel song says "Burdens are lifted at Calvary" so that's where I'm headed.
Hey good for your friend, for realizing that the human body is not something that has to be completely covered all of the time just to for the sake of modesty, afterall we came into the world naked, and if your not doing something immoral or illegal, your body shouldn't make you feel guilty
By the way you were down to 8% ( I am asuming for competition ) man thats incredible, in my early twenties I was competing in intra-school karate tournaments, doing landscaping, and powerlifting, and I only got to 13.6% bodyfat, of course I was powerlifting so I wasn't trying to get lean, just working 12-15 hour days in the summer in AZ tends to melt fat off you. But still the only time I wasn't active was when i was asleep, and you got a LOT leaner than me. COOL
Hi Royce! I wish it was 8%-that would have been great, but it was 18%. (I must've made a typo and left off the 1- oops!?) I agree with you. There's nothing "dirty" about the human body- it's really an amazing machine! True, sometimes we do unhealthy things with our bodies, but that doesn't mean the body is "bad"- maybe our attitudes are just out of balance. Some are more comfortable with themselves than others and that's okay. Perhaps we should embrace the beauty of God's design, not being ashamed of the way we were made?
Great story! If we ever grasp the fact that God loves us more than we could ever imagine... we would dive in more....
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