The Deep End of the Pool...

Many years ago, when I attended Navy boot camp, we all needed to pass a swimming test before being allowed to graduate. We needed to jump into a pool. Not just any pool - this one had a deep end of 12 feet. Many of the young men came from states which did not offer opportunities to learn how to swim. For them, the thought of jumping into a pool of water twice their height was daunting. Once you jumped in, you needed to make to the side of the pool and get out. The instructors did not care if you swam, dog paddled or treaded water with forward motion. You just were not allowed to sink. However, many did sink. They were rescued and put into a remedial swimming class so they could try it again and succeed.

Being from Minnesota, I knew how to swim. Not only did I know how to swim, but I also taught swimming lessons. I even passed the Red Cross lifeguard training and earned a three year certificate in lifeguarding. As scary as jumping in the deep end of the pool was, I knew this from my background - if you spend all your time in the safer, shallow end of the pool, you will never learn how to swim. There comes a moment in every swimmer's life they take that first, harrowing plunge into the deep end of the pool.

As I have aged, I have become less and less interested in going into the deep end of the pool. Not in a swimming pool, I am talking about immersion in life's more important ventures and challenges. This is not a good thing. I have decided it is time to make a significant course correction. I really need to get more deeply involved in things that matter. There are just too many things that simply matter too much.

Getting back into the deep end of the pool involves doing some things that are way out of my comfort zone. For example, to forgive someone when deep down I really don't want to. To love someone when at times that person is unlovable. To serve someone when all I really want to do is serve myself. To share with someone when I can come up with a hundred reasons why I should not. It is listening to God, even though I am worried He might push me beyond comfort.

In my working years, I have taken my turn at the deep end of the pool. Most of the time it resulted in a favorable outcome or I ended up as a better person. As a young man in the YMCA, we were taught to remember the priority of service - God first, others second and self third. Through the years I have either forgotten or ignored that prized wisdom. For that I have regrets. The deep end of the pool demands I now practice that selfless lesson the YMCA taught me years ago. I am ready. The pool awaits. I just need to once again jump into the deep end and swim.