Ever have a bad water park experience? You know one of those situations where something nasty went floating by you in the lazy river or where after shooting down the bullet slide your swimsuit went from board shorts to Speedo? Well I know the feeling.
One day at The Beach Water Park in Albuquerque N.M. I went swimming in the “wave pool”— the giant body of water that every few minutes is transformed into something that is designed to resemble the ocean but feels more like an overcrowded chaotic bathtub.
On this particular day I thought I was going to die. Now granted I am a pretty strong swimmer. I grew up with a pool in my backyard. But somehow as the waves began to crash and people began to bounce in the water I went under. And as I tried to make my way back to the surface I realized I was trapped. All I could see and feel as I looked and reached for the surface were large booties scrunched into those cheap yellow rental tubes (not exactly the last thing you want to see before you die).
And just when I thought “This is it this is how I am going to go out!” This beast of a man with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm pulled me out of the water and saved me.
And although this might sound odd I think my experience at “The Beach” perfectly describes our world and our lives.
It seems as if the world around us is crying out for freedom. In everything from movies (“Crash Braveheart” and “Slumdog Millionaire”) to song lyrics (“High School Musical Kelly Clarkson, Jimi Hendrix), to drugs, alcohol and one-night stands (and other quick fixes) to social justice and liberation movements (Project Exodus, Project Burma, Invisible Children), we long to experience and be a part of a life-giving and life-transforming rescue operation.
It is in this context that we can come to know God more fully, because God wills, above almost everything else, to be known among his people and among the world as the great and powerful deliverer.
Whether it is in the story of the flood, King David’s run-ins with Saul, God’s appointment of the judges, the great exodus from Egypt on the resurrection of Christ, the deliverance of God is a theme and a reality that connects all of Scripture together.
And the point is this: God hasn’t stopped being the great deliverer. He wasn’t a deliverer only at the exodus or only at the death and resurrection of Christ. He is still the great deliverer today. This is who he is. He delights in delivering his people.
And we need not only read about God as deliverer. We can see and experience it for ourselves. A student I know spent the entire summer working in Thailand helping women break free from the bondage of prostitution and the human sex trade. She told me stories of women being delivered, through the power of God, and the work of his people, from a life of captivity and death. God is mighty to save.
Or how about the friend of mine who was addicted to pornography for as long as he can remember, but through the power of God and the accountability of his friends, has found freedom and escape? God is mighty to save.
I hope you will realize that no matter how far under you might be, no matter how many obstacles are stopping you from coming to the surface, there is a God who, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, is ready and willing to reach down into the abyss and save you.