Sink or Swim

SINK OR SWIM

After I graduated from academy, I didn’t do anything. Oh I was headed off to college, that’s not what I’m meaning. No, I didn’t do anything spiritually. I didn’t intentionally decide to let God in my life die, but it happened anyways.

During academy I was doing alright spiritual, mostly because of my fairly steady devotional life, although I did have my ups and downs. After I graduated I didn’t specifically choose to go downhill in my walk with God. But I wasn’t doing any sharing and I began to pray less and less. I would only have my devotionals rarely and when I did I would feel guilty and rushed. I still went to church mostly every Sabbath. But being spiritual isn’t like standing on a flat plain; it’s more like swimming. I’m an ok swimmer. But if I’m not constantly moving, I sink. I just don’t float.
That’s how it was with my walk with God. I quit swimming; I quit being active for God, and instead of staying where I had been spiritually before, I began to sink, I began to fall away from God. Eventually I came to the place where I could hardly call myself a Christian anymore. You aren’t going to retain wherever you were spiritually before, by not doing anything. Even if you don’t specifically choose to leave God, by not doing anything, you will fall away. So find something you can do to keep your spiritual life active.

Just the other day I was cooking with my housemates. It was Friday. It had been a long week, I was tired and I was just feeling irritable. I was getting annoyed by the littlest things. It was really bothering me because I did not want to feel irritated. I vaguely prayed about it in my head a bit. But nothing seemed to change. A little later we decided to make a desert that called for butter and we had completely run out of butter. I live on the top floor of a three-storey house with three other girls and in the middle floor live an older couple. So I ran down to the middle floor to ask “Aunty” if I could borrow some of her butter. I found her lying in bed with a migraine headache. I felt so bad for her. She is in pain a lot of the time. I talked to her for a bit and then told her I wanted to pray for her. I asked God to give her strength and to help her feel better if it was His will. I got my butter and headed back upstairs to finish off my fudge brownies.

The next day I was thinking about practical, simple things you can do to keep active in your spiritual walk and this experience came to mind. After I prayed with Aunty, I realized that I had not felt irritated or annoyed for the rest of the day. I hadn’t even noticed then, but I clearly remember that I did not feel irritable at all anymore and I had such a fun time cooking the rest of the time. It wasn’t until I reached out to someone else just by the simple act of praying for them that my bad attitude was changed.

So it’s not like I have “arrived” or anything. I still struggle spiritually. But through my experience since high school I have learned a few things.

You have to make a deliberate choice to follow God. And you have to make that choice every day.

Second, stay active. Sink or swim. Never “take a break” from doing something for God. If you don’t do anything you will go downhill.

If you don’t feel you can do something big like giving Bible studies or preaching sermons, at least do something; go to Sabbath school every week and be involved; pray with family members or friends; share what you read in your devotions with someone, even if it’s just your parents. And don’t give up!