I can think of two things that I didn’t learn to do at the same time as my peers — riding a bike, and swimming. While many other youngsters had developed these skills in their early childhood, I did not. I learned to bike when I was about 16, but swimming was a story. At some point in adolescence or my teens, I started venturing into the deep end of the pool and seeing if I could stay up, but I didn’t really have formal instruction. In junior high and high-school PE, we had swim units, but I didn’t feel that they really taught me how to swim. The lanes remained the same depth across the pool, with the more advanced swimmers in the deep end.
So, on the first day of swim class this semester, it came as a bit of a surprise to me that every lane deepened into 12-foot water. It seemed strange to me that even those of us in the first lane were expected to make it all the way across. Then, when we were instructed to perform certain strokes, without any expectation of what they were, I was bewildered. By the end of the first class, I was exhausted, and was afraid that I wouldn’t have much opportunity to progress, because it seemed like we needed to already know how to swim. Speaking with those who had already taken the class, though, I hoped that this was just a diagnostic, to find out where each of us were, coming in.
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What truth can I draw from this? God doesn’t need to take a diagnostic of His sheep. Even before we call out to Him, He knows us, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. I think that sometimes we begin to impose a diagnostic on ourselves, where one really necessary. We think that we need to prove ourselves to God, but He already knows how terrible we are—and loves us, anyway.
He saw us bad swimmers, and said, “Yes, I will teach you.” What I was afraid of on the first day of class was of being expected to teach myself how to swim. I wanted specific instruction, not just generic names that didn’t mean anything to me. God knows that’s how we are. He doesn’t leave us to figure out concepts like “righteousness” and “sanctification” on our own. He is the One to teach us, and He is the One to change us.
Isaiah 40:31 promises, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’" Jesus promised His constant presence (Matt.28:20) in our lives, and that He will never leave us (Heb.13:5). We are never going to be alone, because He is with us, for all eternity. Even as we continue to sin and to fail Him, He’s not going to leave us alone. He’s going to pursue us relentlessly, and when we are weak, He will teach us. There is no better teacher than Jesus Christ.
In life, Christ whispers lessons to us. I want to keep learning from Him, and to learn more about entrusting myself to Him, instead of trying to be my own teacher. I can try to teach myself, fail, and feel overwhelmed. Or I can surrender to Him. Why not surrender? After all, in the great swim class of life, I have the best coach of all.
