I’ve done a lot of extreme/adventure sports in my life, and I’ve purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment over the course of my life. One thing I’ve never had to purchase, but never turned down when offered, is a life jacket.
It’s one of those things you forget is there until you need it. You might even forget what it’s supposed to do until it does it. During my outings I’ve been dumped out of a raft in whitewater, I’ve bailed out of a capsized kayak as I approached a waterfall, I’ve crashed dozens of times while trying to do a barrel roll on a kneeboard, I’ve crashed a canoe in the middle of a set of rapids so I could stop in a hurry to help someone, and once I was even trapped underwater with a tough choice while my boss was truly in a life-threatening scenario mere feet away.
In all of those situations, the lifejacket I was wearing pulled me toward, or kept me at, the surface. Even when I got thrashed around underwater and didn’t know which way was up, the life jacket got me moving in the right direction. As Christians, we need something in our spiritual lives that helps guide us and bring us in the right direction. Practically speaking, it’s a combination of reading the bible consistently, praying regularly, and listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. When you’re temporarily disoriented because of the craziness going on around you, those things start pulling you toward the way you’re supposed to go.
One more lifejacket story. In college during the long winter months, it wasn’t practical to go kayaking, so our “Paddle Sports” club held pool sessions twice a week. For those of us who went regularly, there were only so many things you could do in a pool with a kayak before you got bored. In our boredom, a few of us started tossing a diving brick (it was a hard rubber brick that weighed probably 10 pounds or so) into the deepest part of the pool and dove for it. That got boring too, so I put on a life jacket and tried to dive down to get it. The first time I made it a decent portion of the way down, but I had to kick and flail pretty hard to make progress and I didn’t quite get deep enough to get the brick. When I stopped flailing and just relaxed, the life jacket carried me gently but persistently to the surface. It was a neat contrast to be thrashing all your limbs so hard to go one way, then go completely passive and travel so easily to the surface. I was able to dive down to the bottom of the 12 and a half-foot pool and grab the brick, then float gently back to the surface, buoyed by the jacket. This, too, is like the Holy Spirit working in a life that pursues God. Even if you start going the wrong direction, you won’t be confused about it being the wrong way.
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” – Isaiah 30:21