Volume 29, No.31                                             
August 8, 2004

A Deep Truth

   Freediving.  It’s an extreme sport in which you hold your breath and go as low into the ocean as you possibly can, returning to the surface before you black out and drown.   

   To put this in perspective, Canadian freediver Mandy-Rae Cruickshank set a world record by diving 78 metres, the equivalent of taking an elevator 26 storeys down.  She says of freediving, “For most people, this is a seemingly impossible thing to do.  But if you’re like me — and I’m almost more comfortable in the water than out of it because I’m such a klutz on land — this seems like the most natural thing in the world.”

   But it’s far from natural.  To make a successful dive, Cruickshank gulps air, expanding her lungs by 60 percent.  Then, using a mermaid-like fin, she follows a rope as far down as she can go before heading back to the surface, a round trip of just under two minutes.  At the deepest stage, water pressure squeezes and shrinks internal organs and the heart slows to just eight beats per minute, instead of the usual 60.  Push too far and even a pro can black out and die.

   But freedivers insist their pursuit is safe.  They argue that danger looms only when unprepared people try to go too deep too soon, or fail to respect the power that envelopes them below the surface.  Still, the experts say the gravest threat is not pride or impatience, but independence.  “The people who get in trouble are those who dive by themselves,” says event organizer Kirk Krack.  “They don’t have that safety net to take care of them.”  Good freedivers place scuba divers every 20 metres, and have someone waiting on the surface to help.

   As for the future, freediving continues to generate international interest and new world records.  Scientists once thought no one’s body could survive the dives that are now routine.  These days researchers agree it’s impossible to know just how deep humans can go.

   The same holds true for Christians if we compare the freediver’s ocean to the Presence of our all-enveloping God.  Through the centuries, believers have tried to probe the depths of his mind, heart and will through every possible medium, from mysticism and imagination to art and intellectualism.  There are some extraordinary testimonies from those who’ve plunged into a profound understanding of a Creator and Father who still remains a mystery to most of us.

   It was David who said, “Lord, my heart is not proud... I don’t concern myself with matters too great or awesome for me.  But I have stilled and quieted myself, just as a small child is quiet with its mother.  Yes, like a small child is my soul within me.  O... put your hope in the Lord, now and always!” (Ps. 131.)

   Far from excusing us from exploring the complexity of God, the Psalmist points us to the necessity of becoming spiritual freedivers who plumb “the deep truths of the faith”  (1 Tim. 3:5.)  To understand God at the most profound level possible for us, we must rely on His revelation, not our resources.  It’s the Spirit who reveals Him that we might revere Him.

   Like the freedivers, we must learn to quiet ourselves and be submerged in a spiritual environment that will, with time and training, seem more natural to us than life itself.  We must be filled with the Breath of God, follow the direction of the Word that leads us ever-deeper into the Lord’s all-encompassing Presence, and place such trust in his peace that our hearts do a death-defying slow-dance.

   But before the Holy Spirit will open our eyes, we must also yield to His timing and control.  If we patiently prepare for whatever level of understanding and service He chooses for us — respecting God’s unimaginable power — we’ll be safe and spiritually sound, surfacing from each deeper encounter as if it were a brand new birth.

   Throughout it all, though, we need those who will love, support and protect us.  You can try to deepen your faith on your own.  But don’t hold your breath.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe to this free, weekly article, contact sgamble@bfree.on.ca