Church bulletin:
Toward the end of last year, I took up swimming. It has been a bit inconsistent due to work, holidays & health, but the aim is to go twice per week. I started with around 20 laps in the 25m indoor pool. I have since progressed to around 20 laps in the 50m outdoor pool. I really enjoy it & find it beneficial. It is interesting how one can draw spiritual lessons from the ordinary activities and events of day-to-day life.
We benefit from rhythm. For the first few sessions I would only breathe when I felt the need for air. That could be after 8 strokes, it could be after 5. I found that I was tiring easily & decided to regulate my breathing every 4 strokes. This helped enormously. I no longer fatigued through leaving it too long between breaths. In a similar way, rhythm helps us to accomplish what we need to do. If our days are haphazard & disorganized, we still work, eat, sleep & play on our phones, but invariably we run out of time & energy for spiritual exercises. Too much structure is stifling, no structure at all & our walk with the Lord suffers.
Less is often more. Producing less strokes between breathing meant that I could swim for longer. I think sometimes Christians feel overwhelmed with prayer because there are so many things to bring before the Lord. Likewise with reading & meditation – so much to read & mull over. In my experience we often accomplish more by taking bite-size chunks. We don’t need to pray for everything at once. We don’t need to read copious amounts for it to be beneficial. Biting off too much is overwhelming. It is of greater value to pace yourself with smaller quantities over the course of the day & week. In the long run more is accomplished.
Solitude is good for us. One of the things I like about swimming is the quietness & solitariness of it. My phone cannot get my attention, no emails to look at, no-one to speak to, just me left to my thoughts. I clear my mind. I contemplate good things. I praise God silently from the heart. We won’t all swim, but we all need time to be alone. We need quietness & freedom from distraction. Jesus regularly dismissed the crowds & went on His own into the wilderness to pray. If Christ found it necessary, it is necessary for us. Solitude can be difficult to achieve, but if we don’t get time alone, phone switched off, we will be the poorer for it.
The journey is no less important than the end. The aim of each lap is not to get to the end. The aim of each lap is to swim. In fact, sometimes if I am tiring & I think about the end I start to struggle because the end can’t come quick enough. I am better off just methodically going through the motion of the 4 strokes & breathing. I will get to the end & have a break when I get to the end. More important than the end is to press on swimming. Christians must live with a view to the end but not in such a way that it undermines the journey. The journey is important to God that is why He has placed us on it. He does not save us & moments later whip us off to heaven. He has given us a life to live for His glory. The end is desirable & it will come in His good timing.
God blesses us on many levels. The physical, emotional & spiritual aspects of our lives do not exist in isolation. They are interwoven & they affect each other. Swimming has been good for me not just physically but inwardly. I have found ploughing through the water to be both relaxing & stimulating at the same time. After each session I come away feeling refreshed & energized. The same can be true for many other activities available to us.
There are lessons all around us in the things we do & see. One only needs to consider the illustrations used by Christ & the apostles. May God teach us much from the books of creation & life.