Sometimes I drift into deep waters. This was my thought as I looked out upon the stream that terminated into the still deep lake. The place that I looked out upon reminded me so much of my younger days, of a different time in life when I struck out on some of the most daring adventures of my life. These adventures were not of my own doing. They never seemed to be, but rather I was drug into it by others. These short burst of reckless abandon were not of my thought or making. Their impetus was found in the young people with whom I was doing life with as a youth pastor at the time. It was usually the Chamber’s brothers (Jeremy, Jeff and Jacob) in particular, or even one Derek Williams and Craig Williams (A.K.A. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.)   Whether it was swinging out over fifty feet over the clear frigid waters of the Skykomish on a giant rope swing off of a cliff 100 feet from the waters edge to rafting down dangerous rapids and free diving with rocks, I was treated to heart stopping and body beating, prayer shouting moments of agony and exhilaration. 

 

Well, back to the deep waters… I was thinking as I looked out over the water how the transition from the dangerous turbulent waters to the deep pool that stood at my feet, this is so much like my life. How life transitions from one type of adventure to another. From the dangerously reckless days of our youth to the deep waters of mid-life, where the only difference is the that in your youth you could see the froth and foam of if perilous waters. The adventures in life midlife are just as dangerous, yet they lie under the surface, and if not explored with honest exploration can lead to just as painful injuries as when we were young. The difference is I DON’T HEAL AS FAST!!! I look back on those crazy stunts with amazement at my own unbelievable idiocy and lack the common sense to follow my own instincts to FLEE! Well, the thing is, if I had, I could not have such great material to write about today. 

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes you find yourself floating tube-side up in what seems like deep but calm days when men should be at war, but are not and you are comfortable. Too comfortable, and the waters rock you to sleep almost to sleep, and then it hits you! Something from below… something hits you hard and fast and you are thrown from  my perch on top of the inner tube into the depth below. Ok, that was Jeff Chambers, but the point is still true. You are tipped upside down because you fail to explore the dangers in the depth below. What is hidden in the depths of your soul that must needs be exposed to the surface, free of the distortions and illusions below. 

 

Soooo my friend, have you found yourself drifting in deep waters? Put your goggles on, grab the rock and check out what’s below your tube. It might surprise you what is waiting to be brought up and wrestled to the shore.