When I was 5, I took swimming lessons.
Week in, week out- the dreaded car ride to swimming lessons.
Let me tell you, I HATED it.
I didn’t hate it because the water was cold (which it was, mom!) or because it was too deep. I hated it because my swimming instructor always told me, “Ok, Gabbie, just swim to me and I’m not going anywhere. Just jump in and swim to me.”
Guess what?
He proceeded to walk back, getting further and further away from me, making me swim farther and farther to get to him. I planned to swim on swimming ten feet and I was forced to swim twenty. I had no plan for the lengths I would have to go to.
So rude, dude.
Flash forward a few years: when I was 21, I was preparing to submit my medical school application. I had worked on it for months, studied for the MCAT, and filled my resume to the brim while in undergrad. But every time I went to hit the “SUBMIT” button, there was always something else I needed to do first. It felt like right when I was there, it moved back 5 ft. At night I would think, “C’mon God, seriously? I’ve worked this hard and I can’t even push the button.”
I’d like to imagine God was just pulling the “SUBMIT” button back on an invisible string.
So rude, Dude.
I spent the next months answering that dreaded question, “What are you doing after you graduate?” with a much different answer than I had given the past years. Rather than in the beginning, “Hopefully medical school!” I was left with the new normal, “Well, I don’t know…” As a person who has always tried to have an answer and a plan, I felt defeated.
My perfectly thought out, well made plans were crumpled up and thrown in the garbage.
That was the first ten feet. A few weeks before graduation, I get a Facebook message about a potential Youth Ministry job at the Chapel of the Cross in Madison. And now, here I am- another ten feet further.
God has such a sense of humor. There he was in front of me, walking backwards to get me to just come a liiiiiittle farther out into the pool. God tells us loud and clear that HE knows the plans that He has for us.
So, here I am. Swimming in this messy pool of life, to a God with a funny sense of humor. He’s backing up and calling me onward, “Just come on! A little further!”
Ok, God. Why not swim a couple more feet?