The Art of Diving

I’m not going to tell you why I picked this title until the end. So read on- if you dare. The title that initially came to mind, “The Tragedy of a Misspent Life” did not seem to be a very, let’s just say, alluring one! I was first introduced – overtly, that is – to the “concept” of a misspent life when I read “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper after my first trip to Haiti in 2012. And it has been consistently reinforced while I have hurtled rapidly toward mid-century. (I hit the “Big Five-O” earlier this month.)

I never knew a DVD accompanied the aforementioned book until I searched for portions of text I may have underlined. I just watched it in its entirety- admittedly with a bit of hesitation due to Piper’s delivery style – and mined some gems to share with you. When he delivered this talk – or sermon if you will – he was just shy of 58 and offered that the “river is flowing fast over the precipice of my days.” What a beautiful image.

Piper calls into question the notion that retirement in our Western society is what we should aspire to – that being a life of leisure and play. He asks if we are going to buy into the notion that the goal is to “minimize suffering, maximize comfort, maximize ease, maximize security, build bigger barns, work for the bread that perishes, lay up treasures on earth, covet the praise of man and be happy for 80 years . . .” then die. In order to view this notion through a different lens, he implies, we must escape the “clutches of the culture.”

Renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” argues that what truly drives us as humans is the inescapable need to find purpose and meaning in our lives. This can and should be in the context of a life as well as a “retirement” well spent. Not that there is anything wrong with leisure and play and, of course, rest. I think we actually under value these things in our working life, thereby deferring to attain them later… someday.

I recently read an article entitled, “Is Homework Making Your Child Sick?” by Amanda Enayati. I would answer a resounding, “Yes!” I happen to think the amount piled on is absurd, but don’t get me started. Not only in school but at our jobs-for-pay do we work, work, work then miss, miss, miss those “crucial, precious and unrepeatable moments” as Frederick Buechner describes and I would add, the cultivation of deep relationships which will most certainly enrich our lives far more than the accumulation of wealth, status and stuff ever will.

Consider for a moment the provocative words of another Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer who recently died at age 110, “Bad IS beautiful.” We want everything to be beautiful as in tidy and perfectly presented to the outside world, don’t we? Yet we may miss out on the spiritual growth that can spring from a messy and authentically lived life.

M. Scott Peck puts it this way, “there is…part of us, however small, that wants to grow, that likes change and development, that is attracted to the new and the unknown, and that is willing to do the work and take the risks involved in spiritual evolution. And no matter how seemingly healthy and spiritually evolved we are, there is still a part of us, however small, that does not want us to exert ourselves, that clings to the old and familiar, fearful of any change or effort, desiring comfort at any cost and absence of pain at any price.”

What are you clinging to? What gives you purpose and meaning? What drives you? What will your legacy be? How would you write your obituary if you had to do so today?

Frankl suggests that, “When we are no longer able to change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Can you do that? More importantly, are you willing? His oft-quoted philosophy may encourage you, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live can bear with almost any ‘how.’ ”

What is your “why?”

OK, now back to diving. In C.S. Lewis’s “The Business of Heaven” lies this short passage, which I would like you to read slowly and let it seep in, “The art of diving is not to do anything new but simply to cease doing something. You have only to let yourself go.”

I believe we are designed to let ourselves go into sweet communion with our Creator. Let Him baptize our imaginations of what life can be – the glory and wonder of one lived with divine purpose and meaning – at 25 or 65. If you dive in, the waters may be unbearably turbulent or exquisitely still. You may discover the “baddest” shark or the most beautiful coral reef- maybe in the same place. If you linger on safe ground, however, one thing is for certain – you will never know what you’ve missed.

You have only one life, my friend. Spend it well.

 – Caroline Watkins