“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
I read a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson recently about the purpose of life. He wrote; “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Today we celebrate Memorial Day and remember those who sacrificed their lives so that we might live in a land of freedom. If you served in our Armed Forces; thank you for your service. We celebrated Pentecost yesterday and give thanks for those souls who 2,000 years ago lived their lives being inspired by the Holy Spirit.
I would have liked to have added ‘being Spirit driven’ to the words from Emerson. We aren’t all soldiers, but we are all God’s children and we all have a purpose for our life. This title today may seem odd, but the term “drown dry” will always be chiseled into my memory storage bank. I may have written about this topic before, but trust me, it will be a little different this time around.
Back in the day. while working for the State of Nebraska, one of my duties for a couple of weeks out of each year was to pair my civil engineering training with my SCUBA diving experience and inspect bridges; underwater. Our dive team consisted of four SCUBA divers who had passed the FHWA Bridge Inspection course and each of us were from a different State Agency. At that time, there were 90 bridges on Federal, State and County roads in Nebraska that had a river or canal water flow with a depth of over five feet year-round.
For me, this part of my job. was a dream come true; get to use the better equipment then I owned and get paid to dive. This was like a paid vacation. It wasn’t like diving in a clean sandpit. The water was typically zero visibility and most of our work was done tactically; by feel and in current. The attached photo is of me after putting on my gear in Gosper County and was ready to go into the Tri County Canal. The main point of my story today is the mask. It is a full-face AGA mask with three-way communication capabilities. Diver to diver and diver to surface.
When we were being trained to use, clean and repair this mask, the instructor said something very profound to us; “drown dry”. Those words brought me to the reality of the dangers of my job. Drown dry! If you become entangled on underwater debris your normal reaction would be to release your weight belt, the tank, pull off mask and swim to the surface. Drown dry! Being entangled in barbed wire, tree limbs or fishing line will hold you while you are stressing out twenty feet under flowing water in zero visibility and current; trapped…drown dry! When the rescue diver eventually comes down to pull your body to the surface and begin CPR, the chances of bringing you back to life are much greater if there is no water in your lungs; drown dry.
Each of us has a calling to do something for our Heavenly Father on this side of Paradise. We are celebrating Memorial Day this weekend and recalling all of those who went before us. Souls who served their country, worked in the soil, healed the sick, raised their children, taught in school and so many more vocations that God wired each of us the way He prepared to use us.
The two verses from Matthew are our Great Commission. Bring people along your journey closer to Christ. It won’t always be easy, but Jesus is always with us. Stay in the Word, keep your mask on…drown dry so you can continue the work He prepared you for on this side of Paradise.
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay