I recently took up swimming again. It has been about fifteen years since I last swam laps as a form of recreation for fitness and enjoyment. As I was walking Rocky this morning, I became aware of how different my body feels after less than a week of swimming. Even though I am not toned or fit, my body feels like it has sprung into life after fifteen years of hibernation! 

As I walked, I could feel muscles all over that I didn’t remember I had! I feel like I’ve grown three inches in length from being so stretched! I wondered why swimming had this all-over effect on the body, and I began to turn to the Lord about it. I realised that swimming exercises just about every muscle in your body. This reminded me of the body of Christ and particularly in the context of a local ecclesia.

A healthy ecclesia is where every member of the body, who gathers together as a community in that location, functions. Not one or two. Just like with swimming, every muscle or member is being exercised. There is a perfect balance as the life of Christ is pumped through, expressed and strengthened in each member.

If I run for exercise, I will exercise my leg muscles and feet more than any other muscle in my body. Part of my body will be strongly exercised, and part of my body will be less exercised. I will bear a lot of impact on my feet, ankles, knees and hips and this can cause injury over time.

It would be the same effect as many other forms of physical exercise. Whilst at first they might seem to produce a positive effect on the overall health and fitness of our bodies, these forms of exercise bring imbalance and often injury over time. 

If I suffer this kind of injury, I will then need to use my head to re-evaluate what I am doing and change direction in how I exercise my body. And that may require learning a whole new form of exercise that will be more gentle on my body parts.

So too, is the local body of Christ. If we have only certain members functioning at their potential while other members hardly function at all, it might be enjoyable and effective, to begin with, or even for quite a long time but because of this imbalance in the body, over time there will be wear and tear and even injury. The body will need repair and recovery time to heal, or it may even suffer permanent damage. 

This will require a change of direction in how to function and that will mean turning to the Head of the Body for His mind. Ultimately, this crisis might work in our favour to bring about much-needed change according to the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Additionally, if I run for exercise, I can hardly do so in bare feet for risk of tearing the skin on the souls of my feet, for pain from kicking stones or running on hot tar. Therefore, I need to wear running shoes. This is something external and man-made to support my preferred form of exercise. Alternatively, when I swim, I am free of any man-made support to enable me to swim. All I need to do is jump in the water and well,…swim. Of course, I need to learn how to swim first, don’t I? But more on that in a moment.

In the true organically grown ecclesia, the members of Christ’s body don’t need external man-made support. Let me correct that sentence. NO members of Christ’s body EVER need external man-made support to function in His life even though sadly there are millions of saints gathering where that is exactly what takes place. 

Thousands upon thousands currently gather together under the headship of man and clergy, positional titles, traditions utilising material supports like bands, smoke machines, stages, technology, large extravagant buildings and so on. Take the shoes away from a runner, and he can’t run very well. Take these supports away from these saints, and they struggle to function if they can at all.

When I was in my thirties, I wanted to overcome the use of medication by getting fit. So I started running nearly every day and worked my way up to ten-kilometre runs on a regular basis. After a while, I got what they call shin splints. If you’ve ever had those, you know how painful they are. They are an inflammation of muscles, tendons and bone tissue caused by running on hard surfaces.

A friend suggested I start swimming because it would increase my lung capacity and that in turn, would help me in my running,  though in his mind swimming was a much healthier sport for the body. 

Now, when I was a little girl, I was scared of swimming. I loved the water and used to play in it a lot, but I was afraid of swimming. I subsequently did my best to avoid the swimming lessons I was forced to attend in school, and when I couldn’t get out of them, I felt traumatised by them. So when my friend suggested swimming, of course, I said I couldn’t swim because I had hardly any swimming skills since I avoided it like the plague all through my growing-up years. 

This friend encouraged me nevertheless, to attend squad training, even if it was only to watch and check it out for myself. I did this and was amazed to discover that whilst fit and robust swimmers were doing their full-on squad training in most of the fast lanes, there were a couple of lanes at the side of the pool reserved for people of all different ages, sizes and capabilities who were learning to swim. 

Reflecting on this while I write, I’m amazed at what an incredible picture this was of a group of saints learning to function by the Lord’s indwelling life in them together. All different, different styles, different levels of learned ability but all swimming in the one direction together and enjoying one another. Needless to say, at the age of 35 I learned to swim.

Swimming changed my life. It was such an enormous thing for me to overcome and taught me that if I could learn to swim, I could do anything. I never thought it was possible. It’s very reflective of the scripture in Philippians 4:13; I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The suggestion from my friend to take up swimming is a shadow and type of how the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, even when it means facing something we never thought we could. The Holy Spirit is always pointing us to Life and Truth, and that of course is Christ. He is the better way, the higher way, THE Way.

You see, I was of the belief that one was either born with the capacity to swim or one wasn’t. One was born an athlete or not an athlete. Just as one was born a musician or not a musician, an artist or not an artist. It never occurred to me that everybody could swim, that everybody could run, everybody could sing, everybody could paint. Sure, the expressions of these skills will be different from one another, but we all have the same capacities within us. I had believed a lie. All my life. I had believed that I could never be a swimmer and therefore I would never know what it was like to experience the freedom to throw myself into the water, pool or ocean, and freely embrace that water and become one with it.

Is this ringing any bells? Is this shaking anyone’s shoulders?

Saint, you were born to swim. You were born to jump into the River of Life, the Water of Life, and be able to swim! You were born to be part of a body of saints who are learning to swim together, by the Life, the God-given capacity, that is the Gift of His Son, in you! In you all together! It doesn’t matter what you look like to the outside world. You don’t have to be a group of saints who are beautifully polished and buffed; you only need to swim together! Help each other, lead by example, support one another, enjoy one another, frolick in the Sea of His Love together; every member functioning.

Oddly enough, because I was still running, my shin splints hurt more than ever when I got in the pool to do laps. Even the gentle movement of the water and the new movement in my leg muscles brought the pain of those shin splints to the surface, you might say. This is a brilliant picture of what it is like for us spiritually when we move from an environment where we are only used to partly functioning or hardly functioning at all into one where we are fully functioning. Like moving from the pastor/pew environment to a truly organic every-member-functioning ecclesia. Some of our dysfunctional learning is exposed in the process, and the only way through that is to keep swimming, gently and restfully, until we are recovered.

The water is a shadow and type of Christ’s Life that embraces us. He is the water that holds us and enables us to be buoyant and rest and enjoy Him. He refreshes us. He strengthens us. He carries us. He satisfies us. We are all equal in Him. We enjoy His life together. He is bigger than us; He is enormous, wider and deeper than the ocean. And He beckons us to come, dive into Him! Know Him and love Him in all liberty and unrestraint.

My prayer is for that natural (or supernatural) Life of Christ that indwells you to be exercised and expressed among the saints when you are gathered together. Every member has a portion of Christ that is vital to the health of that gathering of believers to see the full and authentic expression of Jesus Christ in that place. There truly must be no imbalance in the functioning of His body or the body will break down.

Lord, teach us all how to swim! For Your increase.