Lifesavers

Ever seen a Lifesaving Merit Badge?  Here it is.

My brother earned the rank of Eagle Scout when he was fourteen.  On the other hand, I wasn’t even a half way decent Girl Scout.  I do not think it is fun to camp out.  And when I was expected to cook eggs on an upside down can at Camp Grandview - well, that was the end of my Girl Scout career. Somebody call my daddy to come and get me.  I am out of here! I ended up with something like four merit badges.  Four – as in the single digit.  I think one of them mostly involved reading.  It was the only one that wasn’t a group effort.  Pitiful. 

 

My brother was a very successful Scout.  Unlike me, he actually took to all that camping, hiking, and spend-the-night-in-a-tent-or-worse business.  I did think all that Order of the Arrow business where you got to dress up like an Indian was pretty awesome, but hardly worth putting up with the other stuff.   Anyway, the road to Eagle Scout is paved with many a merit badge – twenty-one, I think – and some of them are earned without running water (hot or otherwise) or electricity.  Nonetheless, in my own way, I contributed to his achieving that rank of Eagle Scout.

Here’s how.  Two of the many merit badges he needed were Swimming and Lifesaving.  That requires some serious time in the water.  So, he went twice a week for a couple of hours at a time and learned all those swimming strokes and all about lifesaving. I did not participate in those lessons.  (I did not actually learn how to swim until my son did.  That is another story.)  I mostly used that waiting time to do my homework or read.  Anyway, to get good at lifesaving you have to have someone to save.   That would be me.  I got to be the victim who got hauled out of the water and rescued in the nick of time. You might think that sounds easy, but being a victim isn’t all it is cracked up to be.  It is imperative, if you want to successfully rescue someone from a possible drowning event, that you keep them right side up with their head out of the water.  That does take practice on the part of the rescuer. As the one being towed, I got exceptionally good at holding my breath.  It was always a relief when my turn as a victim was over.

After all of that swimming and training, my brother was fully qualified to rescue the drowning.  I’m not sure that he ever has, but he is absolutely prepared.  He didn’t have to wonder if he could  do it.  He knew he could.  As I was working on the last of our homework for Jonah – Navigating a Life Interrupted, I couldn’t help thinking that our rebellious friend Jonah had some doubts.  I wonder how prepared he really felt.  He was a prophet, after all, but I wonder if he really felt prepared for the task.  I do think he was greatly relieved at being alive after his trip in such an unlikely vessel.  It was quite a rescue for quite a victim.  I am thinking he was particularly thankful to end up on dry land once again.  His whole experience probably made him quite willing to “arise and go” when God told him to do it, even if he might not have felt truly prepared.  As happy as he must have been to be alive, he surely wasn’t happy about those Ninevites and God’s willingness to have mercy on them.  Do what?  You mean You aren’t going to destroy them?  Why not?!  Just look at them and how they’ve acted!!  But, Jonah did his part – reluctant though he might have been.  And he apparently did it well, even though the message was a rather short one.  (So you don’t have to look it up, here is the entire sermon:  “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” That’s it. ) The Ninevites listened and repented.  Success! 

If God can use rebellious, unprepared, reluctant, runaway, hardheaded, angry Jonah to do His work, I think He can use a rebellious, unprepared, reluctant, runaway, hardheaded, angry, scared somebody like me.  Or you.  You already know what the hardest part will be.  Arise and go.  God does the rest. 

So, are you up for a little lifesaving with God as the instructor?  We all get better with practice.  Arise and go.  God will take care of everything else.  Even a big fish, if need be.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:10