A question that challenged me several months ago is this. Why do we as Christians often live and wade in the shallow waters of life? It's comfortable and easy and familiar. There's no storms to endure, no major challenges to overcome. Here we pursue unfulfilling things like money or pleasure or comforts or even good things like love, fun activities, our children, our spouses, hobbies, interests, even work. "The shallows", as I will call them, may provide busyness and perhaps even a distraction from the most important and central issues of life that we often want to escape from. They are sensitive to our emotions, there's no heart break or devastation in these shallows because there is no apparent danger anywhere. They are safe. One word to describe our motives in these shallows is self. We are self preserving. Self fulfilling, self satisfying, keeping our interests and desires and frankly, our idols very very safe. Or so we believe. In these shallows however come lack of purpose, boredom, the waste of a life. The minutes and hours spent in these shallows are consumed in nothingness. They are mortal moments thrown into the fire and burned away forever. Not even ash is left of the time we waste there. Not that these shallows have no purpose, but they are not meant to be where we camp out and spend our life tinkering with toys like overgrown children.
The deep waters of life are, well, scary. There's storms out there. The waves, they're huge and boisterous and threatening! There's hideous beasts out there, lurking beneath every wave, just waiting for a little boat to devour. I could get hurt! My kids could die or get sick or suffer! Or what if something happens to us and they are left parentless! What about them? But these deep waters are where contribution lies. This is where our purpose is found. It is where our Lord most often meets us. It is where we are not safe that we find our God nearest. It is where we are uncomfortable, unfamiliar, uncertain and seemingly lost. It is where we need Him most desperately that we find Him most apparent. These deep waters are where life becomes most, maybe not exciting! Or happy! Or pleasant! But it becomes most fulfilling and most purposeful. Most productive. It is a strange paradox - that which gives us the most fulfillment brings the greatest danger. It involves risk. Heavy risk. It requires faith. Faith! If we who call ourselves christians are the least of all risk takers then who or what are we trusting in?! The greatest risk taken for the greatest cause will be rewarded with the highest glories. It will be provided with highest rewards. But we must look at this from a Gospel saturated lens. Lord purge our souls from worldly contamination and cleanse our eyes so we may see as you see. Perhaps it is true that the realest danger lies in the shallows. Because the deep waters can only kill the body. But with Christ our soul is secure. In these shallows, though perhaps our soul is secure, those around us, our children, may be swallowed up by the world and thus perish eternally. So the danger of the shallows is the death of the soul and at the very minimum, shallow eternal rewards. What keeps us from casting off our fears but our shallow desires? What frees us to launch our boats, however big or small, into the depths? Yes, faith, but it is more. Our deepest and most fervent spiritual desires to honor our Lord with our service mixed with a holy fear of His greatness will purge from us these fears and pitifully selfish desires. If our deepest desire is to follow our Lord Christ and be well pleasing to our Father then we will want most deeply to live with His purpose building His Kingdom and risking our vain little life of vapor in His service. Whatever our loss in this life will be simply rubbish compared with the surpassing glories that await us in Heaven. The fervent life, the burdened life, the sacrificing life, the strenuous life, the risking life, the Christian life, the productive life, the praying life, the faithful life. This comes with the highest of rewards and the deepest of heartbreaks. But this is the life I was meant to live. And until I am living this way, I will be miserable. I may appear somewhat happy and jovial, but that will be more of a facade to pass the time away until I can again live this way. For I once did. And now I crave it. Inside I will be empty. Yes I will have Christ as my savior but that is like telling an eagle who has wings to spend their life walking everywhere. They were meant to fly not merely walk. Or a married couple to not have sex. Or an artist to be a mechanic. Or a mechanic to be a ballerina. Whether this is how God designed all of us or just me and a few others, it matters not to me. I believe God made us all to live more in the depths than the shallows.
