Stories for the Grandkids…

Fishing.  Ever been?  I’ve been a few times, never caught anything worth telling stories to the grandkids about.  Well I went fishing a few weeks back and got bored after literally twenty minutes or so.  I wasn’t really dressed for the occassion and the idea of catching something had lost it’s luster.  So my buddy and I sat on the bank of this huge lake discussing what the next plan of action was.  Now let me give you a little history on this buddy of mine.  He took swimming lessons all growing up, he was a lifeguard for about five years and now he works for the coast guard…  He’s practically a sea creature.  So his idea of fun was to swim to the other side of the lake, which was roughly five or six-hundred yards to the other side.  Me being the man of integrity I am, I was not about to have any part in such an adventure.  Five minutes later… we were making our journey across the dark liquid plane.  As I said earlier, I wasn’t dressed for any outdoor occassion.  So I was swimming in pants.  Let me tell you something.  Don’t swim in pants.  Don’t swim in pants in a swimming pool let alone across a deep, dark lake filled with who knows what.  Why you ask?  Because it’s quite difficult and you get really tired really fast.  Now just as a side note, I’ve been running almost  an hour everyday for well over a month now.  I assumed that my swimming abilities were up there with my running endurance.  I assumed wrong.  Half way into my quest I quickly realized the possibility of drowning.  I was exhausted and wondered what is was inside young men that compelled them to do such things.  Anyways, I reached the other side and found myself facing a wall of rock and dirt, too steep for me to crawl out of the water onto.  In addition to this conveniently placed wall of my demise, the water was still way to deep to stand.  So although I had indeed made it across, I had no resting place to catch my breath.  I was still swimming.  Meanwhile my friend was just coasting around wondering what my problem was.  So long story short I took my pants off, let them right there, and swam back.  I liked those pants.  Now some sea monster is wearing them in mockery of my struggle. 

I thought this was humorous but  I also found it practical.  So I used it as an anology in a lesson I taught my youth group.  Isn’t it so strange how we can cling to things in life that do nothing but weigh us down?  Life is a struggle and we make it harder on ourselves and those around us when we grip the temporal meaningless stuff when all we should be doing is clinging to the rope which Christ has provided us to not only stay above water, but eventually make it to shore and climb out of this world.  I had to lose my pants to make it across this lake, a small sacrifice to some but to me… I like those pants.  In life, there must be a willingness to make sacrifices if it means pulling us out of our selves and into a life of submission to His word and to His glory.  I’m glad I let go of my pants in that lake cause I was going down had I not.  And I pray I have the strength to let go of the big stuff in life if I am in any way going down because of it.