Swimming in the Matrix

I struck off across the width of the pool. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Only the deep end was open to swimmers as the shallow end was taken up with a parent/child swimming class. So no lane swimming. Whew. Only widths. Back and forth. Back and forth.

I am not a confident swimmer. I have always struggled to really believe I am not going to sink. I have signed up for lessons, determined now, as I approach my four score and ten, that I will conquer the fear and learn to trust. Trust that my body is buoyant. Trust that a few simple movements are enough to keep me afloat. I don’t need to flail. Flailing exhausts me and stalls my progress.

Back and forth. Back and forth. Forty times in as many minutes. Back and forth and over and out.

Next week I will seek to increase that number. But for now, forty widths is good. I am getting stronger.

I am learning to trust.

Commit your way to the Lord, the Psalmist advises. Trust in him.

It is the Lord who keeps me afloat. The Lord who directs my steps. The Lord who gives me breath and blesses me in a thousand ways every single day.

Swimming in the matrix of the Lord, I will not sink. He will help me to persevere; he will transform my mind and soften my heart; he will enlighten and inspire me by his Holy Spirit.

I am so grateful.

Commit

Commit to the Lord whatever you do and he will establish your plans. A brilliant mathematician was interviewed on the radio this morning, and she said that she spends an hour every day working on her mathematical research. If she misses a day, she loses track of what was in her mind, of what she was thinking, so she is committed to at least one hour every day. She loves sitting in a busy coffee shop or bar, where ‘life’ swirls round her as people socialise, and she sits alone with a blank sheet of paper, thinking hard – so hard her brain hurts – and the ideas come and she writes. 

Committed. 

A blank piece of paper reminds me of writing, and I hear the challenge. How committed am I? I certainly don’t sit every day for an hour and make sure I put something down on a piece of paper/computer. I don’t sit with the Lord for an hour every day either. 

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. That brilliant mathematician is making a difference in the mathematical world, which probably is making a difference in the ‘real’ world, too. She is delighted, and committed, to her calling.

I want to make a difference. This world needs all of our voices crying out for justice, for mercy, living in faith in the living God, in Jesus, who is the exact representation of the glory of the Father. How committed am I? 

I hear the challenge.