Swimming in H
ead in line, good shoulder rotation, butt tight, toes pointed, stiff kick—all parts of a good backstroke swim. It takes a lot of discipline, commitment, and straight up hard work to develop the technique necessary for a good backstroke, a good swimming stroke. It’s really hard to wake up, trudge half-asleep to an early morning workout still sore from the practice only ten hours earlier, and get motivated to swim hard. But that’s what it takes.That’s just what needs to be done. In the same way, it takes discipline and, indeed, training to go to church, pray, and live faithfully.
H I G H E R
T H I N G S __ 6
So if I wake up at 5:30 on an average morning to swim, getting up for church on Sunday should be cake, right? Unfortunately, my sinful flesh wants nothing more than to stay away from church.The devil wants to kill my faith. And the world wants nothing more than to offer every sinful excuse and temptation not to go. On Sunday morning, my bed feels unusually warm and comfortable. I sometimes find myself justifying why skipping church would be okay. And of course, it always seems that everything fun happens on Saturday night, making the already-difficult-to-wake-up-Sunday morning even more tricky. So, no, getting up for church on Sunday is not cake. It’s more like brussels sprouts or runny eggs. But I need to constantly remind myself or, rather, God’s Holy Spirit constantly reminds me, that I need to go to church. That’s just what needs to be done. But why do we need to go to church? Because Jesus is there! We as Lutherans believe that at church, through God’s Divine Service, we see, hear, eat, and drink Jesus. We truly become one body with Christ and enjoy all the benefits of His divine Sonship, namely the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, salvation, and divine glory.Through Christ and His precious Sacraments, God no longer finds
us guilty of judgment and hell. So no matter how cushy my pillow is or how joyful I am with friends on Saturday night, these things pale in comparison to the comfort and joy found in Christ through His Divine Service. Just as daily swim practice prepares me for the next swim meet, so daily prayer and devotion prepare us for church on Sunday.Through the meditation and recitation of God’s Word, we come to know and appreciate Christ’s sacrifice more fully, making us long for His holy, sacrificial Body and Blood. By reading the Bible, reciting Luther’s Small Catechism, praying the psalms, and singing faithful hymns, we train our hearts and minds ever toward Christ, where they’re always supposed to be but aren’t because of our sinful nature. Swimming has become particularly advantageous to my faith life as a means to discipline my sinful flesh. Like Paul in Romans 7:18,“I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” And Luther tells us in the Small Catechism: The Sacrament of Holy Baptism that “the Old Adam [who claims our sinful flesh] in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires.” Swimming daily (not in the baptismal sense of course), therefore, helps me to this
