December 19: Dive In; God's Got This

December 19:

Luke 1:26-35 “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,  to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’  Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’ ‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’  The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

When I was a kid, my parents made me take swimming lessons. Every June, my cousins (their parents made them take swimming lessons too) and my brother and I endured a daily 45 minute session for two weeks straight.  I’m making it sound like torture, but it really wasn’t. All of us loved to swim. 

The problem was that our lessons took place at an outdoor pool, and unless it was raining, WE. WERE. IN. THE. POOL.  Did I mention that we usually did this during the first two weeks of June?  More often than not, the water was ice cold, and our lips would be blue by the time the lesson was done.  But like I said, we were kids, so for the most part, it didn’t both us.

The worst part of swimming lessons was the last two days – the testing days, where we would prove that we deserved the privilege of getting the little white credit card-sized piece of cardstock from the Red Cross (which was a pass vs. a fail). Since I was such a fish, I can’t remember that I ever failed.  I do remember, however, one time when I came close.

It was during the last session of Junior Lifesaving (back in the day, this was the last class you were able to take before starting the Lifeguard process). I was fourteen years old, and in order to pass, I had to jump from the high dive.

At the pool where we took lessons, there were two diving boards, a low and a high, attached to the deep pool, which measured 12 feet.  I had long ago conquered and mastered the low diving board, but the high? Not so much.

As I have mentioned previously, heights and I are not the best of friends.  We get along when we have to, but we do not typically associate by my choice.  But like I said, if I wanted the white card, I HAD to jump off the high dive. . .fully clothed. . .so that I could prove my rescue skills by using my clothes as inflatable devices.  The second part I was confident about; it was the jumping part that I wasn’t so sure about.

At the moment of truth, everyone in my class had already jumped in, except me.  Even my cousin had jumped, and she was treading water like a boss.  They were all waiting for me.

As I climbed to the top and inched toward the end of the board, I was surprised at how spongy the board was. I edged my toes to the end of the board, and at that moment, I should have just kept going.  Unfortunately, I made a critical mistake; I looked down. 

While everyone was screaming at me to jump, I just froze.  It was so far down to the water! I didn’t care that at least ten other people had jumped before me and lived. 

Finally, I heard a voice behind me; it was Shawn Grabow, the instructor.  If test days were the worst part of swimming lessons, he was certainly the best.  At the time, Shawn was a senior in high school, and he looked as though he had stepped right out of a Baywatch episode.  All of us girls were in “love” with him and did our best to try to impress him. 

“If you don’t jump, I am going to have to push you in,” Shawn said.  Now that I think about, I am pretty dang sure there is no way that Shawn would have done that, but at the time, it sounded convincing.  With that, he inched his way on to the board behind me.

Now wanting to be shoved against my will (or humiliate myself further), I finally stepped off.  I would like to say that I leaped or dove or yelled or made some dramatic, powerful exit, but truly, all I did was step off.  As I expected, I panicked when I felt nothing beneath my feet.  Even though it was only a couple of seconds until a hit the water, it felt as though I was falling for far too long.

The reason I am relaying that story is because I will fully admit that I am, by and large, a chicken when it comes to the big stuff in life.  Oh, I can and will be brave when I have to, and spontaneous in the small stuff, but  I like lines, rows, order, and schedules. People like me are the hall monitors and teacher’s pets of the world – predictable and reliable – but we would never be picked first for the “fun bus.”

That may not seem like a big deal, but when it comes to the spiritual realm, it’s a really big deal. While orderly living and predictable schedules grease the wheels of life, it does not leave much in the way of wiggle room for God-inspired risk-taking.   

When I read the passage about Mary as she received the news from Gabriel, I tried to put myself in her shoes.  After Gabriel greeted her by saying, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you,”  Mary was “troubled”(Luke 1:28-9).  Gabriel goes on to say, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.”

I am relieved to know that Mary was at least freaked out a little bit; she was definitely having a human reaction, which is why Gabriel basically told her to settle down and not be afraid. After explaining that her life is about to change in a big, big way, Mary said, “How will this be? I am a virgin.”

Even though what Gabriel had told her seemed illogical and impossible, Mary closed her mouth, set her jaw, and obediently braced herself for the maelstrom into which she would walk. Man, I admire her chutzpah. She leaped off that diving board without hesitation and never took her eyes of her Savior’s face. She didn’t worry about the void beneath her feet; she was confident that God had it all under control.

There have been times in my life that the same question, “How will this be, Lord?” has run across the marquee in my mind after God has nudged me. 

Even though I have no idea what my win-loss record is with regard to obedience to those nudges, I do know that I remember the fails more often than the successes.  Fear, reason, logic, and other earthly excuses have kept me from leaps of faith more times than I care to admit.  It is the moments when my toes have been to the edge of the board, and I have backed away, that I mourn the fissures of faith and the blessings I will never know. 

Even so, God is good. When it comes to epic fails, He offers grace and redemption. . .and second chances.  If He has a place He wants us to go, He keeps rearranging doors and windows, or. . er. . .diving boards.  Our job is to pay attention when those faith opportunities and nudges present themselves and dive in. God’s got this.

Psalm 16:8 “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”


Colossians 3:17 “¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”


Challenge: Leave a confidence sticky note. Leave sticky notes with inspirational messages on them in random places, such as a grocery store shelf, the mirror in a public bathroom, or on a car's windshield.