It’s a puzzle and an irony. The puzzle is the formation and development of human life submerged in water. Amniotic fluid is the nutrient home of all human life, the starting point. It is where we begin, a necessity until we move from amniotic to atmospheric. After a nine-month swim, we discover another ocean, the ocean of air. Wouldn’t you think that, given our watery start, each of us would love to splash around in swimming pools, do cannon-balls into familiar water? But such is not always the case. Thus, the irony. It is an irony that, once established in the ocean of air, in our post-birth years, some of us are not interested in water. You would think that I might want to jump into every swimming pool I pass. Memories of home! But we’ve all known people who are afraid, if not terrified, of being in or going under water. The point?
Living a spiritual life, a life of spiritual consciousness, is much like being in that water. My friend who is afraid of swimming, looks at the water as an enemy, something to overcome. She splashes and thrashes until she finally sinks. If she would only relax into the water, treat it as friend not foe, she would discover that the water is willing to hold her up, that she could float, relaxed and at ease, instead of floundering.
The fundamental invitation of the Christian faith, and perhaps of other major faith traditions, is to get into the water, allow it to be your friend, let the Spirit sustain you and buoy you in trust. More than one story has been told about swimmers who, having drifted out to sea, relaxed into the current and allowed it to carry them back to the shoreline.
There is much to be said for floating in the Spirit instead of struggling and contending for spiritual awareness. The Spirit waits with open arms for those who are willing to trust everything, even life, into a relationship with The One who formed us. Give up those spiritual water-wings. You really don’t need them. Press on…in trust.
Shining Spirit 
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