written November 28, 2005
Our pastor was recently preaching on spiritual warfare and the need to always be in full armour, ready for the attacks of the devil. He gave the following illustration of appropriate action to take when the “storms” of life occur:
Do you know that fish never get upset when it rains? Fish never say, “It’s getting really wet out here!” Whenever it rains, fish know that no matter how much turbulence is on the surface, it can only penetrate 25 feet below sea level, so they just go down to 26 feet – they just go deeper. So whenever you meet turbulence in your life, just go deeper where the waters are calmer – where Christ is.
It was very encouraging to be reminded that we will always find needed peace in Christ, no matter how turbulent the waters around us are.
As I took the analogy further in my mind, I thought how the ocean is the natural environment for which fish have been designed. Although a storm roils the waters, making navigation difficult, fish use their natural design and instinct to seek out calmer waters in the same environment.
However, if a fish were to wander onto the seashore to live a life of relative “ease” (where it did not need to be constantly navigating through the waters) I would guess that it would lose its instinct to seek deeper waters during a storm, having lost the skill of navigating waters at all.
We are sometimes “fish out of water” in the environments we North American Christians have created for ourselves. Many of us have sought to create such a pampered and padded environment around us that we have little coping skill in times of any distress or discomfort in our sheltered lives.
We live in a society in which we are constantly encouraged to tend to every little physical ache and pain, to strive for days of lessened stress, to nights of lengthened & deepened sleep, to seek perfection in our bodies, our minds and our relationships. There is a plethora of drugs, books and programs all aimed at cushioning our bodies, our emotions and our egos to protect us from any knock or bruise that can happen in life.
Although it is prudent to seek to live a physically and emotionally healthy life, I wonder if the pre-occupation with our own physical and emotional comfort has led us to be ill-equipped to deal instinctively with the rawness of hardship and stress with which previous generations (and much of the rest of the world today) has had to deal daily. As Christians have we not curled up into a spiritual “fetal position” to become preoccupied with catering to our own needs and desires in the spiritual life, to the neglect of the lost and weary around us?
Perhaps as Christians we need to seize a new interpretation of the Christian “fish” symbol to become “fish” fully immersed in the ocean around us, for which we have been divinely designed. Instead of being so intent on the padded protection for ourselves and our children, perhaps we need to surround ourselves with and immerse ourselves in the ocean of life, forcing ourselves to be constantly “swimming” – exposing ourselves to deliberate dis-comfort and dis-ease so that we no longer seek to control our own environment but must rely on God to manage it. Rather than recoiling from situations in which we risk discomfort, we would now dive willingly, trustingly, with an assurance that always beneath such waters lies a deeper pool to which we always have access for peace and protection.
My experience has been that churches who immerse themselves in (rather than insulate themselves from) the day-to-day hardship of lives around them are the ones who experience true strengthening and growth, both inwardly and outwardly. This does not mean that we sacrifice the care for or discipleship of those within, but that the aim of such tending is to more effectively prepare and mobilize God’s “soldiers” for the battle beyond the walls, and in so doing, build up the body in unity and maturity (Ephesians 4:11-13).
We have been perceived by the world as a religion of stunted believers who have retreated into ourselves, out of touch with the current reality of life, nestled against each other in fear to preserve the outdated tenets of a religion that is no longer relevant to a world on “the outside”. But what if we were to jump in and “swim” alongside them – to frolic and laugh in the shallow waters as the sunlight sparkles through the gentle waves, but then as the inevitable storms arise, to lead them deeper, deeper to the calm that lies beneath, into the presence of the One who commanded the sea, “Peace, be still!” And once in His presence, they could taste and come to crave God’s saving grace, offered to them unconditionally in love.
O Christian, come – put on your armour. Fasten your lifebelt. Let go of the safety line that anchors you to the trappings of this superficial ease, and dive into this ocean on whose shores we lounge and loiter, hardened and desensitized to those floundering just steps away. Come – join in the rescue of all who are at risk of losing their souls as they flail about on the surface of life, not knowing the depth that Christ’s love reaches. Come – swim hard, dive deep.
