One of the activities at camp is the swimming pool. Most of the kids do not know how to swim though, so we were put in charge of helping teach them to swim. The language barrier made this an interesting task, to say the least, and in the words of my teammate, Erica, we basically became their own personal floaties. This consisted of looping an arm under the child's tummy to hold them above the water (sometimes they would wrap an arm around your neck as well) and let them kick and try to swim. There was a lot of splashing and they would often get scared if you took them too far from the edge of the pool or would start to let go so they could swim on their own. They didn't trust us immediately, though they would listen to what we would try to explain (either hoping they understand our English from what they've learned in school or in our broken Albanian with rudimentary sign language), but the more they realized what we were doing and knew that we were trustworthy the more they were able to focus on what we were teaching them.
The Bible talks about having child-like faith, which is often described as believing God because He says so and just trusting Him like we trust our parents. But when children start learning how to swim they trust their parents words (or swim teacher at swimming lessons…but I shall continue saying parents), but the actual learning process is scary and they can quickly lose their faith in their parents when they see the trials that are ahead. It takes a while to warm up to the idea of swimming even when the parent is constantly holding on, and each step of the way there is a new wave of fear. I have to stick my head underwater?! You want me to kick and paddle while you hold me up by my stomach…now I have to do it with you 3 inches away but not holding me up?! Etc. We keep going from our parents' encouragement. We trust what they say, though in action it is incredibly more difficult. They had patience with us as we navigated through our struggles with the tension between fear and trust.
In the same way God has patience with us. He wants us to believe in what He says knowing that His word is Truth, but He has patience in our weaknesses. In fact, in our weakness He proves Himself to be strong. Looking back at when I was learning how to swim, I see how silly it was for me to not trust the process of learning. It wasn't safe per-say, I was facing danger, but I was facing it next to a teacher who wouldn't let anything worse happen to me than maybe some water getting up my nose and having a fright. The same works with God. He is there, right next to you at every moment. He knows the process for making us new, and it might be scary, and it might hurt, but trusting Him in every area knowing He is there to catch you, even if you don't feel Him holding you up, is ultimately what is best for you. When we learn to trust Him, then we can focus on what He is teaching us. Looking back your fear will look silly when you see how God is working.
