Diving In...

Remember when you were little and were learning how to swim? First you got to play in the little kiddie pool and splashed around, or maybe your parents put those water wings on you, and you got to splash around in the shallow end of the pool...but once you learned how to swim, you just dived in, right? No more sticking your toe in, or cautiously wading in...you just ran and jumped in, trying to make the biggest splash possible...




Isn't how we approach life kind of like that? Some of us are still splashing around the kiddie pool...afraid to even stick our toe in. Some of us have stuck our toe in and are cautiously wading in deeper, but afraid to go all in. And some of us have just run and jumped in, not even caring whether or not we can swim. But then there are those of us who have gone to the deep end, were comfortable there, and then drowned. And once we came up for air, we vowed we'd never do that again, because quite frankly, the experience sucked.



Until something comes along that makes us want to dive in again....



And yet there we stand, on the edge of the pool, sticking our toe in, so desperately wanting to be in the pool, but afraid of what might happen. We have every floatable contraption on us, so that we don't drown. And while we think we're protecting ourselves so that we can have fun, what we're really doing is keeping ourselves from fully experiencing the deep end of the pool.



Or maybe we're actually in the pool, but still in the shallow end where our feet can touch the ground...or maybe we're actually in teh deep end, but holding on to the edge of the pool.



Regardless of where we are, the real fun comes from letting go and diving in. Trusting that even though we can't swim that well, the person we're with won't hurt us while we're there. And if they do? We doggy paddle to the edge or yell for help, and pull ourselves out of the deep end, so that we can take a deep breath and try all over again...



So...where are you? I know that I'm not in the deep end yet...but I'd like to be...