Can you imagine teaching your 5-year-old child to swim by tossing him, alone and afraid, into the deep end of the pool? That is cruel and abusive. Instead, we should get in the pool with them, teach them slowly and surely how to swim. Watch their fears wane and their confidence increase. Then we can throw them into the deep end with assurance.
We are all trying to make sense of our lives and the world that we live in. Why are we here? What is wrong with this world? What should I be doing here? Where can I find meaning and purpose in this crazy world? For many, it seems that God has thrown us into the deep end of the pool unassisted.
We struggle to come up with an interpretive grid to understand ourselves, and the fallen world that we live in. We are playing the game but we do not know the rules. We struggle to make sense of life, our desires, and dreams, our struggles and failures. We want to be better than most and have a little fun as we walk through life. We are like that 5 year old in the deep end of the pool; fighting to make our way to the edge of the pool.
Has God thrown us into the deep end? No, he has taught us to swim first. God has given us the true interpretative grid to understand ourselves and the world we live in. We were created in his likeness to image him to the world around us. We were fashioned to be God’s friend and his representative in this world. The world was created good.
But sin, rebellion, pride has entered our hearts and polluted the world around us. We live as confused rebels in a broken world. Nothing seems to make sense. Life is now lived without the true interpretative grid so we make it up as we go along and struggle at the deep end of the pool. Man attempts to forge his own meaning, from his own perception of himself and the world. In pride, rebellion, and confusion, he fashions his own filter of meaning and purpose. But he does so with a fallen mind and a selfish heart. We witness the damage of an independent man and his rebellious mind all around us. The man at his best is a confused, selfish mess. And the society that grows up around sinful men is marred and ugly. We are all flailing for our lives in the deep end of the pool and we don’t know how to swim.
God’s Word has been compared to glasses. Through these corrective lenses, we can see ourselves and the world clearly. We are fallen and the world is broken. But God has sent his Son to forgive our sin, heal the scars and return us to a home better than Eden. God has taught us to swim. We have the interpretive grid that fits with life as it really is.
We need to wear the glasses to benefit from this corrected vision. We are rebels, redeemed by the grace of God. The wisdom of fallen man is foolishness to God. Independent man has rejected God’s glasses and therefore flails about in the deep end of the pool.
Do not fear the wisdom of the wise. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:25 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8. The wisdom of God pours forth from His Word as you read it and hear it taught and preached. Follow the wisdom of God and you will know how to swim. You will have the interpretive grid for life and know true meaning and purpose.