Are Your Feet Touching the Bottom?

Nov 11

Our three grandsons were watching a water polo match on television during last summer’s Olympic Games. The players were jostling for position, splashing up a storm, all while trying to either throw a ball into the net or prevent the other team from doing so. The boys thought it looked like a great time.

But there was one small question they had (I think they had been discussing it before I came into the room). They wanted me to confirm that the players were standing on the bottom of the pool while doing these things. I broke the news to them that this wasn’t the case—they were treading water. They looked at me incredulously and I could tell that water polo now looked much less like fun and much more like work.

They correctly realized that in the water, everything changes when your feet don’t touch the bottom. Everything becomes more difficult, daunting, and even potentially dangerous. But it’s more than worth it because there is absolutely nothing like the experience of swimming—but you can’t do that with your feet on the ground.

That’s the way it is in following Jesus—you can’t do it with your feet touching the bottom. We’re meant to be in the deep water that comes when we live by a higher power, pursue a holy purpose, and journey toward a heavenly place. Living this way is distinctive. It is exactly the kind of thing that makes the world scratch its head and wonder if they’re missing out on something. As Bonhoeffer said, “Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.” And yes, this makes living for Jesus more difficult, daunting, and for people in some places, even dangerous. But it is the only thing that brings what Peter referred to as “inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8). It is where true freedom and fulfillment are found.

Though he was speaking of choosing a vocation rather than discipleship, I believe that David Brooks was nonetheless spot on when he wrote:

What most people want in life, especially when young, is not happiness, but an intensity that reaches to the core. We want to be involved in some important pursuit that involves hardship and is worthy of that hardship . . . there is something inside us that longs for some calling that requires dedication and sacrifice.

That is what it looks like to live for Jesus and that is the business of disciples!