Learning To Swim

a devotional for summer

Photo by Vivian K on Unsplash

Thank you for joining us! Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:

I’ve got to tell you all: you keep spoiling me with such insightful comments!! But I have to share the following from last week’s discussion. In answer to the question What are you harvesting this season? (could be defined however people pleased), Holly Rabalais said:

When I read your post Monday I thought--wow...this is speaking to me. In this season I have just finished a *literal* harvesting of my stem cells for my brother who is battling leukemia. That harvest represents the last ten years of rebuilding a relationship with him (that was strained for about a decade). We are closer than we ever have been and have been sharing with each other how God is moving through his illness and recovery, growing us even more.

I don’t mind telling you this brought tears to my eyes, and seemed to bless others here, too! Holly writes Release and Gather here on Substack, which I highly recommend checking out for her insightful posts! Thanks, Holly!

If you want to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!

Now, on with this week’s devotional…

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blue sky day
blue ripple lake

dragonflies
damselflies

race past
floating

below, my feet dangle
over depths unknowable;

I don't like lakes,
I tell him. 
I hate imagining
what lies at the bottom. 

but if I don't imagine, 
I don't worry.

suspended
halfway
between blue sky day
and blue ripple lake

liminal,

as above, so below,
or perhaps
on earth as it is in heaven.

On Saturday, we—me, husband, dog—walked through our neighbors’ backyard into the woods and went for a swim in the hidden lake behind all of our houses. It was the first swim of the summer for Finn, our dog.

If this sounds celebratory, it’s not quite.

First, how to describe Finn? He is a two-and-a-half-year-old, 87-pound ball of fluff and love, half Bernese Mountain Dog and half goldendoodle. But more than that, he is an intensely loyal, hilariously stubborn muppet who is friendly to a fault and braver than he realizes. A court jester. A foot-warmer. A Velcro-beast. A watchdog with a heart of gold.

Every dog owner believes they have the best dog (or dogs) in the world. We are no exception.

Among other things, from an early age, we thought it best to teach Finn to swim. We assumed he would take to it quickly; after all, half of his breeding is comfortable in the water, and swimming is an excellent exercise for big dogs.

Now, at two and a half, Finn can swim. In fact, he swims very well. But he doesn’t exactly enjoy swimming. In fact, we’re convinced that the main reason he swims at all is just to appease us or even to protect us. When we leave the shore to dive into the lake it’s like he heaves a sigh and says, “Not again!” and plunges in after us, hoping to herd us back to dry land.

On Saturday, as we swam, the whole experience made me thoughtful. Watching Finn’s at-first frantic swimming, going back and forth between me and husband, checking to make sure we were okay as we attempted to reassure him. And then, little by little, he started to adjust, to venture out away from us, to snap at leaves floating in the water and explore further from our swimming spot.

It makes me think: how many times do I spend spiritual and emotional energy flailing, worrying, panicking? Ignoring the voice of God attempting to calm and reassure me, “This is good. This is normal. If you just relax, you might even enjoy this process.”

As always, God sees the whole tapestry, the whole board. He knows that the water won’t hurt me, and I’m safe, that I can just enjoy. Like Finn, I don’t always understand or acknowledge His reassurance. But I feel it.

And when I give in to that feeling, I find the strength—the peace—to swim.

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