Don't let go!

I definitely remember what it's like to be a little kid learning to swim but not quite able to trust your parents to keep you from drowning.

I was at my pool today, and a mom was trying to teach her little boy how to swim. Expectedly, he preferred to stick with his floaty and clinched to it with his dear life. The mom, however, was set that her son would learn to swim today. The conflicting opinions caused quite the challenge in the task at hand actually being accomplished.

After frustration got the best of her, the mom finally took the floaty from Chase (she used his name enough for me to catch on) and set it outside of his reach on the side of the pool. So then he started clinging to her. I used to teach swim lessons, and I felt for her in trying to overcome the brute strength of little kids when they think their lives are at stake. One thing Chase kept telling his mother was, "Don't let go of me! Don't let go of me!" He repeated this so many times that I created a little song of it in my head while I was half reading my book and half absorbing the scene around me.

It doesn't have to be scary.

Even though Chase was right there in the hands of his mom, he was still so afraid of drowning. He has to know on some level that she loves him dearly and would never let anything bad happen to him, but there is still that anxiety present when caught in the struggles of life (or, in his case, swimming in our apartment complex pool), that we aren't going to be able to stay afloat. As an outside observer, I knew that Chase's mom would reach her hand out to her precious little one the instant he started to flounder. But this afternoon, little Chase could not be convinced of that, no matter what his mom said or did.

Chase didn't learn to swim today, but I think progress was made for this little guy. He batted the water a bit and seemed to get the kicking (and profuse splashing) of the legs down, so we might see him chasing (unintentional pun) some Michael Phelps records years down the road.

I think we are all a little bit like Chase a lot of the time. We know that God is with us always, and we know He will help us when we feel like we are drowning, yet we are not convinced that we are truly safe. But God loves us even more than Chase's mom loves him, and He wants us to keep swimming. He wants us to keep stroking toward Him and all His goodness.

But we have to be willing to give up our floaties and try.