Riptides and Christians

Living in New Zealand, a place surrounded by two large bodies of ocean water, has been a real education for me.

My first experience with swimming in the ocean came while I was an intern in Salem Oregon. I remember all too well the frantic feeling of being smashed by a wave that took me by surprise as I was mesmerised by a sea lion not too far from me. The wave tossed me around like a rag-doll and then plunged me head first into the ocean floor. I heard all the bones in my neck crack as I collided with the bottom. I finally got my legs under me and stood up only to be greeted by water that was rushing down the slopped beach back into the ocean. I stumbled, fell, got turned around, and became so dizzy that I was having trouble knowing which way to head back to shore. Needless to say, my respect for the ocean and the mighty power it wields has never left me. One must keep their wits about them whilst playing in ocean waters.

New Zealand has hundreds of beautiful beaches, many of which are decent for swimming, surfing and body boarding. However, the best places for these activities usually include a serious riptide. A riptide is an underwater current, also called an undertow. It seems that over the 4 years I have lived here every couple of months we hear the sad news of someone being swept away by these dangerous riptides. The problem as I understand it is that just forgetting for a split second that you are swimming and playing above a riptide can be fatal. Suddenly the tide has you in its grasp and starts pulling you out to the open seas. The first mistake is that is often made is that people swim where they are not supposed to swim, outside the watchful eye of the life guards. The second mistake that many make is they try to swim against the tide. Doing this very quickly exhausts them and they succumb to the drag of the tide and are swept out to sea. The only way to survive is first of all not to panic and second is to swim across the tide in slow and steady strokes, stopping every so often to wave your arms and cry for help.

I was thinking of this and how it relates to Christians and the power of the culture we live in. The culture is much like a riptide. Forgetting it is there, even just a few seconds, and it starts to drag you off under its tremendous power. Swimming against it is also not wise, for soon you will become exhausted, and with no more power to fight it it begins to consume you or at very least sidelines you. Swimming across the tide is the only way to survive until rescue comes.

This swimming across the tide is called being wise or discerning about how much we allow culture to influence our day to day lives. How often do we passively approach the culture we live in? How often have you seen someone go off taking on the evils of society head on only to run out of gas, get into a rut, and fizzle out against the relentless pressure of culture. Jesus instructed us as his disciples to be crafty as serpents yet innocent as doves in regard to these matters. To swim across the current, to be smart about what we call good, and to remember where we are living and who we are living for is the only way to survive until rescue comes. He commanded us to be in the world just not of it.