Swimming Pool Theology

As I did my laps this morning in the swimming pool near my mother-in-law’s house in Canberra, I found myself pondering on the nature of God.

It was a beautiful morning. We had driven through the early morning sunshine, through clouds of brilliant white cockatoos and pink breasted galahs, and by the time we arrived at the pool, the brilliant winter Australian sunlight was shining through the windows onto the Olympic sized pool. As I dived beneath the water, slivers of light flickered on the turquoise floor of the pool, like illuminated ripples on a pond.

As I moved beneath the surface, I felt as if I had entered another world, silent and still, in which I flew like a bird suspended by water. As I rose for air, I felt a yearning for the glorious peace and beauty of the world below. And what applies in the sanitised environment of a swimming pool is magnified a hundred fold in the seas around this amazing country, where you can gaze on the alien life forms of the Barrier Reef and the colourful diversity of God’s underwater world.

I once heard that we know more about the make-up and surface of the moon than we do about the deepest reaches of our oceans. The world beneath the water is as mysterious as the nature our creator who exists outside of space and time, beyond the boundaries of our limited understanding. And when we surrender ourselves to the water, it can take us out of the daily round and enable us to see things from another perspective.

So this morning I thought I would share a couple of the thoughts that came to me as I swam.

1.Swimming can be a wonderful form of prayer. If you allow it, swimming laps is a wonderful way of clearing your mind of all the thoughts that tend to crowd out the voice of God. There is something wonderfully meditative about the rhythm of moving through the water, and after a while, though in motion, it is easier to be still and know that he is God.

2. Water is such an important symbol in scripture, representing not only purification, but also the Holy Spirit. In the gospels Jesus refers to the Spirit as living water saying,’Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them”. (John 7:37-39). The act of being in water, reminds of the all-encompassing power of the Holy Spirit, both within us and without us. As we walk the earth, we so often stumble, but in water, it is as if we are held by the arms of God. The natural laws that limit us on earth are suspended, as we move through the water, buoyed and carried by a force greater than us.

3. What I am going to say now does not apply to doggy paddlers who are determined to keep their heads above water. I used to be a determined doggy paddler, but a few years ago my husband bought me a pair of prescription goggles and now when I breast stroke I am able to move beneath and see through the water. It is such a gift. I feel that as I dive beneath the water and resurface for air that I am moving between two worlds; the world in which I habitually move and breathe, and another in which the natural laws of gravity no longer apply. And as I move between the two it reminds me that, as Christians we live in two Kingdoms, the worldly realm in which our desires dominate, and the Kingdom of God. And that our daily lives resemble the path of the swimmer, who longs to dwell beneath water of God’s Kingdom but, as a mere mortal, is forced to return again and again to the world above . . . . until the day that we draw our last breath and are able to dwell is his kingdom forever.

So suggest you get out your swimmers and goggles and make time to listen in this way to the still small voice of God.

Kate Nicholas’s best-selling memoir Sea Changed (shortlisted as Christian Biography of the Year 2017) and her latest book Sea Changed: A Companion Guide – Living a Transformed Life are available at Christian bookstores and online at eden.co.uk, kooroong.com and Amazon worldwide. Her recent TV series Living a Transformed Life can be viewed on demand on www.tbnuk.org or at www.katenicholas.co.uk.