Doing the Dead Man's Float
God wants to save you and me from doing a spiritual dead man's float.
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I learned to swim quickly. Everyone raised in northern Wisconsin does when Lake Superior is his or her swimming pool. I think the water stays at 33 degrees year-round. My brother, Jim, can attest that I was especially good at the dead man's float. We decided to see just how skilled I was at this particular athletic feat one hot summer day while visiting Grandpa and Grandma.
Grandma decided it was time for two young boys to cool off (our begging helped) and walked us down to the lake in Pattison Park near their house. After swimming warm-ups and a few lung capacity tests, I inched my way into the shallow water about 10 feet from the shore, took a deep breath and very skillfully launched my body into the dead man's float.
The first 10 seconds were easy. But as I floated facedown, I began to wonder how often Grandma looked up from her book. Negative thoughts started creeping in: You can't hold your breath much longer. She may be on a good chapter. Boy this water is cold! Then, I heard it.
"Bobby? Bobby!"
As I rolled over, I saw Grandma's panicked look. She had run into the water in her white tennis shoes to save me. While looking dead is truly the perfection of the dead man's float, the taste of victory was not as sweet as I expected it to be. I look back on it now and wonder how much I shortened Grandma's life.
Many years after that summer of giving Grandma grief, I realized that all of us come into this life spiritually doing the dead man's float. We naturally sin against others and against God. Only this dead man's float is just the reverse of my foolish day at the lake. It takes us years, some more than others, to recognize that we are floating through life spiritually dead. Yet, God knows this and is eagerly waiting for us to seek life so He can run into the water to save us.
At some point, this prayer should become our prayer: "O Lord, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior" (Psalm 38:21-22).
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. —Ephesians 2:4-5
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. —John 1:12
Bob Schustedt is the publisher of Senior Times-Life After 50, located in Colorado Springs, Colo.