That is not the way you learned Christ!

Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. // Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life. – “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning” by Mario Vittone

As I read this blog, I couldn’t help but stop at these words. I don’t know if the writer knew the true depth of his own words. I have watched both friend and family begin to drown in their personal lives. I feel like I have an eye for that just as the captain was trained to recognize what a real drown victim looks like. Each of us experiences silent moments. They are the moments that define the entire make-up of our lives. Sometimes in these moments that we are alone, we get disoriented. Something catches up to us. We may not see it or admit it, but we begin the drowning process. It steals away our confidence, costing us our heart. (I've seen a person completely lose themselves and never even realize it. We say life "changes us", but the loss of identity and the development of one's identity are too very different things.)

I do not write this as much to drowning people as I do to the people who can help them – the people who are called to be watchful captains. We must keep our eyes open and watch over others. Just taking the time to walk awhile next to someone could change the way their day ends. We are made for fellowship. We need each other.

Galatians Chapter 6

9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Isaiah Chapter 58

10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

11And the LORD will guide you continually

and satisfy your desire in scorched places

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

Ephesians Chapter 4

19They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20But that is not the way you learned Christ!

All of these passages sparkle like gold mines to me. They are riddled with something precious and important. My eyes have not missed their gleaming veins of urgency. I don’t want to be the root end of my own cause. I don’t want to sell out to my own human desires. I refuse to be satisfied by a life that is not extravagantly wasted on people. That is not the way I learned Christ.

The flipside of this coin is that if we claim Christ but refuse His calling, we become the drowning person.