Pastoral Thought--July 26

 While the requirements may have changed over the years, the swimming merit badge that I earned while a Boy Scout was challenging. 

I was, and am, a good swimmer. I knew my strokes and I passed the swimming test at Scout Camp each year as one of the fastest swimmers in my troop. Camp Manatoc’s swim test required me to swim the length of the pool 3 times without stopping. I could use any stroke that I wanted to do this. Then on the fourth time down the pool, I hd to flip over and backstroke my way up the pool. Again I was very fast at this. The final test was to float on my back for a minute until the lifeguard splashed me with some water to indicate that I was done. 

The whole thing as easy for me. It was always easy for me. Eventually I would be certified as a BSA lifeguard because of my ease in the water. So like I said, swimming was easy for me. 

But the one piece of the swimming merit badge that I struggled with was a requirement that asked me to dive down to the bottom of the pool (15 feet) and retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool. As odd as this might sound, I am afraid of heights, so the thought of how deep I was going triggered me fear of heights (I know doesn’t make a lot of sense). . . .Oh, and we had to dive to the bottom of the pool from inside the pool—no jumping off the diving board or side of the pool to gain extra momentum. We were told to go to the middle of the pool, drop our brick, and go get it once it settled on the bottom.

Failure rate for this task was great at first, but after some time most of us got it. 

The instructor taught us how to arch our back as we flipped over which would help propel us down into the water fast. A quick kick of the legs as we ‘arched our backs’ and we were almost there. But I could not do it. In fact I wasn’t even that close. The depth was frightening to me.

But with some gentle teaching and encouragement from the lifeguard, I learned how to move the brick deeper and deeper and honed my skill to go deep into a pool. Now I love to sense of arching my back and gently kicking my legs to go deep. It is so relaxing to feel myself float down deep into a pool and rest there. The world above me so silent; so blue. 

In The Universal Christ, Richard Rohr says this: 

"To stay on the surface of anything is invariably to miss its message – even the surface meaning of our sinfulness."

The depth of my scout camp’s pool, and my ability to swim down there, taught me something about sticking to a task, about believing in myself, and about believing that I could push myself and accomplish great things. It taught me that fear will still be with me; I cannot remove fear from everything that I do. But I can realize that I when I press in and expand my horizons, great thing could happen. 

Maybe, just maybe, if we press in to the depth that is around us, push ourselves to go where we have not gone before, we might just find that holy ‘brick’ waiting at the bottom of the pool?

Blessings

Rev. Derek