Day 72
Diving
Porpoise are amazing divers. Studies have indicated they can dive beneath the surface for around 5 minutes to a depth of more than 700 feet (224M). These dives are described as “feeding trips.” [i]
I enjoy the outdoors. Every so often I get a sense that it’s time to go. I need to get away and enjoy a change of scenery beyond the ruts and routines of the everyday. I enjoy fishing rivers and streams. There’s just something about the motion of the water, the sounds, smells and the scenery that seem to soothe me in ways other environments cannot.
On this particular trip I drove over the north Cascades highway in Washington State to a campground adjacent to the Wenatchee River, just above the town of Leavenworth, WA. I arrived during the evening, set up camp and went to bed. The next morning, squirrels chattering and the rising sun piercing my tent awakened me. It was a spectacular morning; warm, clear blue sky and the river level was perfect. I assembled my gear, put on my chest high waders and approached the rivers edge.
During the next two hours, I was in heaven. Everywhere other cast was attacked by Rainbow or Brown trout. I decided to move toward shore from my position in the center of the river to get something to drink. I slipped.
My waders filled with water and pulled me beneath the surface. The swift current was hurdling me feet first downstream. I opened my eyes and could see the surface shimmering about four feet above me. For some reason, I was holding my fishing rod firmly in my left hand. I looked down and could see the bottom of the river six feet below me. I was passing through a deep channel in the river. I started thrashing about with my arms, attempting to get to the surface. Nothing I tried was able to correct my predicament.
I can recall the first thought of fear that pierced my soul. “I’m gonna drown.” This epic revelation was followed by thoughts like “I don’t want to die!” and “God please help me!” A millisecond later, I felt the current pushing me to the right, toward the river’s edge. I opened my eyes and saw a tree branch jutting into the water just up ahead. I reached out with my right arm and grabbed onto the branch. After wrestling with the current for a few seconds, I clung and climbed the branch, bursting through the surface, exhausted and trembling.
Sometimes we slip and fall in the currents of life. In my life, it’s not uncommon for these occasions to thrust me beneath the surface of where I had been moored. In fact, I get hurtled downstream, frantically wrestling with the terror of it all. I have come to appreciate (not enjoy) these moments in life. I have come to accept them as an indispensable part of this life. As one author suggests: “If you do not cut the moorings, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the smooth waters just inside the harbour bar, full of delight, but always moored; you have to get out through the harbour bar into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to have spiritual discernment.” [ii] Expect to be cut from the moorings of a surface level existence in life.
Yet, in mainstream Christianity, many have earnestly attempted to reduce the irrefutable mystery of the life of faith into a safe, predictable, logical, formulaic framework. I believe these attempts overlook the fact that “Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.” [iii] I’ll bet Porpoise adore those deep dives. Maybe we are created to enjoy them too.
It has been suggested that, “Spirituality in America may be three thousand miles wide, but it remains only three inches deep.” [iv] Others have declared “With Christians now largely indistinguishable from non-Christians in how they live and think, there is no longer a startling freshness to the proclamation of biblical truth when it is presented as principles and propositions. How a person lives speaks much more loudly than what he or she asserts, now as always.” [v] Perhaps, like the Porpoise, we are not created to feed on the surface. Maybe we must be awakened to appreciate the gift of our heartfelt yearning to dive beneath it all, feasting on the nourishment that awaits us out of sight.
Is it possible that the people would be more attracted to Jesus if those who claim His name became known for what they had discovered diving beneath the present surface of it all, and shared these new discoveries with others? Do you believe that there is any merit to the statement that, “Our modern preoccupation with producing and consuming leads us to live on the surface level of reality and to seek our satisfaction in the finite. But the sacred is known in the depths of reality, not in the manipulation and consumption of the surface.” [vi] I think so. Porpoise know so. Their very lives depend upon their ability to dive for it.
Although the seas of faith may be broad and only a few inches deep on this planet, perhaps our task is to dive beneath the false bottom we have been led to believe is presently there. As one sage writes, “The hunger I encounter across the land for silence, solitude, and centering prayer is the Spirit of Christ calling us from the shallows to the deep.” [vii] Dive deeper.
NOTES
[i] Read, Andrew Porpoises Voyageur Press, Inc. Vancouver, B.C. Canada © 1999 by Andrew Read, p. 36.
[ii] Chambers, Oswald My Utmost for His Highest Journal Barbour Publishing, Inc. Copyright (c) 1935 Discovery House Publishers & Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1963 Oswald Chambers Publications Association Ltd. p. June 8th.
[iii] Miller, Donald. Blue Like Jazz, Thomas Nelson Publishers Nashville, TN Copyright 2003 by Donald Miller, p. 205.
[iv] Gallup, George Jr. & Lindsay, Michael D. Surveying The Religious Landscape – Trends in U.S. Beliefs, Morehouse Publishing Harrisburg, PA Copyright © 1999 by George Gallup Jr. and D. Michael Lindsay, p. 45
[v] Sweet, Leonard. Out of the Question… into the Mystery – Getting Lost in the Godlife Relationship, WaterBrook Press Colorado Springs, CO Ó Copyright 2004 by Leonard I. Sweet, p. 21.
[vi] Borg, Marcus J. The God We Never Knew – Beyond Dogmatic Religion to A More Authentic Faith, HarperSanFrancisco-A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, Copyright © 1997 by Marcus J. Borg, p. 113.
[vii] Manning, Brennan The Signature of Jesus, Multnomah Books, Sisters, OR Copyright © 1988, 1992, 1996 by Brennan Manning, p.149.
