The Pool of Faith

Romans 6:12-23New International Version (NIV)

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin,which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

On Father’s Day, I shared with you that we got a pool.  So, yes, you are welcome.... That the temperature hasn’t gotten above 85 and we have received some much needed rain.  The nice weather and the rain I will take credit for but not the tornados.  All joking aside, I am thankful no one was injured.  Anyway, getting back to the pool... Cora and Griffin jump right in.  Even though the water is not really that warm yet, they do not mind.  They love splashing and playing.  Even though I have had to playfully threaten them for splashing me as it takes me a few extra minutes to warm up to the cooler temperatures, we are enjoying our time together.  Guthrie, on the other hand, does not enjoy it as much.  He doesn’t even like to take showers as he is not as big of a fan of the water as his brother and sister.  However, this hesitation is fine because it is becoming more and more apparent that his older brother and sister may need his voice of hesitation and reason as they continue to get older.  That being said, I think his voice will fall onto deaf ears.  Guthrie’s entry into the pool has been quite the process.

The first couple of times getting into the pool, our time was spent with me standing on the outside the pool letting him simply kick his feet in the water.  In fact, I ruined my watch because it claimed it was waterproof up to three feet.  I was able to disprove that claim.  So initially, all he wanted to do was kick the water which got me soaked but he would not go into the water.  Against his will, the next time I got in with him and his life jacket.  He wasn’t much of a fan.  So the third time Cheyanne came up with idea to get him a kind of floating device that he puts his feet in so that way water only gets to his waist.  With a lot of hesitation still, he finally got in.  But once he got in, he held onto the side of the pool with dear life.  He would not let go.  He was very panicky and I could tell he wasn’t really enjoying himself.  Finally, I was able to convince him to let go.  By that I mean I peeled his fingers off the edge of the pool one at a time.  This was difficult for me because I didn’t want to force him to do something he didn’t really want to do.  On the other hand, I knew if he did let go he would definitely enjoy himself.  I was stuck with this difficult decision of not knowing what to do.  I didn’t want it to be forced because I do not want to make the pool something he didn’t like but at the same time, I knew he would have fun if he would just let go.  He still is hesitant about the water, which is probably a good thing, but he is now enjoying his time spent playing in the water.

For many of us, faith is familiar to Guthrie’s experience of getting in the pool.  We seek faith with this sort of hesitation.  Part of us wants to know God in more detail but we may spend some time only kicking the water with our feet.  Once we finally make the decision to make the leap into faith, we hold onto the wall with this sort of panicky way about us.  We are still full of hesitation and wondering if we made the right decision.  Then, slowly, God’s love and grace starts peeling our fingers off one by one.  I think my hesitation as a parent in trying to not to force Guthrie into the water but knowing he would really enjoy himself is relatable to our relationship with God.  God knows that a relationship with him would greatly benefit us.  He knows that we would really enjoy it once we “take the plunge.”  Yet, he doesn’t force us to do so.  He allows us to test the water and make that decision when it seems comfortable for us.  

For a moment, allow me to use the pool as a metaphor.  The water inside the pool is faith and everything associated with God’s love and grace.  Everything outside the pool is sin.  There is a ladder that gives us access from the outside of the pool to inside the pool.  Jesus is the ladder that gives us that access.  Jesus is the ladder that bridges us to God.  He is the point of access from sin to grace.  Once we climb that ladder, we may spend some time testing the water by simply kicking in it.  At this point we are still unsure of what it means to fully give of ourselves to God.  Once we finally gain the courage to enter into the pool, we still may hold onto the outside edge.  In other words, we may still hold onto that last sin or two with a very tight grip.  We may still cling to those one or two things that keep us connected to the sin found outside the pool of God’s grace and love.  Slowly, and over time, God will find a way to peel those fingers back one by one.  There will be people in our lives that help us to release our tightly held grip of sin.  Along with His Spirit, our prayers, our worship, our relationships with others and our relationship with Him we will let go.  Still filled with an intense feeling of hesitation, we finally let go.  Before we know it, we find ourselves floating amidst God’s love and grace.  Enjoying His presence, we find ourselves splashing God’s love and grace onto others.  Griffin loves the water but has not yet mastered the art of swimming so there is a lot of incidental splashing that occurs.  Some of us will be like Griffin and look like a fish out of water as we try to navigate the pool of faith.  However, the accidental splashing of God’s love and grace will still leave its mark just like the very cold splashes of Griffin’s efforts do to my back.  People will recognize and feel the splashes, even when they are accidental.

Now Guthrie is getting into the pool with excitement and little hesitation but there is one last thing he is yet to do.  He won’t fully put his head under the water.  Here again, we find the metaphor useful.  Once we do work up the courage to take the ladder from sin and enter God’s grace, and once we have let go of the last bit of sin by letting go of the edge, we still have to allow ourselves to be fully submerged in a relationship with God.  We may keep our head above water which allows the elements of sin to still get to us.  We must be willing to take all of who we are and give it to God and the only way to do that fully and completely is to submerge ourselves into God’s will.  The metaphor of baptism is present here as well.  Taking the ladder and putting our feet in and testing the waters of faith is only a part of the process.  The same can be said for keeping our head above water.  It is all a part of the process.  We may bounce between holding onto the edge, kicking the water, keeping our head above the water but know that God is there with you.  He wants you to take the dive into His will but He also doesn’t want to force you to do so.  No matter where you are in this process of getting into the water, I am only encouraging you to take the next step in that process.  And if you have fully submerged your head, then go about splashing God’s love and grace onto others just as a child splashes amongst the water remembering what Paul said, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”     Amen.