I’m going to tell an embarrassing story. I’m sure my sister will not be pleased with this story but I actually feel the embarrassment is on me not her. Growing up my family had a pool. Most folks not from Florida ask me all the time if we grew up on the beach. Honestly, though we were only about 15 minutes from the beautiful west florida beaches, we spent more time in our backyard by the pool. It was a great little oasis for the whole family and there was none of that irritating sand that just get’s everywhere!
I think I was in 6th grade and my sister was around 4 or 5 when this little embarrassing event occurred. I had a friend over and we were playing around outside while she was riding a little push car around the deck of the pool. She was motoring around and got a little too close. Reana, truck and all went dumping into the water. Now she had been in swimming classes the previous summer, but it was spring and we obviously hadn’t been in the water for some time. The truck started sinking and she started flailing in the water. She wasn’t getting in nearer to the wall and I think the little truck was stuck on her little leg. So, I jumped in – school clothes and all. I pulled the truck off her and handed her to my buddy who was standing on the deck. By that time, my grandmother was running out with a towel and was wrapping up my sister. I swam back grabbed the truck and got it and myself out of the still cold early spring water.
That’s when the embarrassing part took place. See I had just got new Nike Air Jordan’s. They were exquisite! Normally, my parents didn’t splurge like that on shoes – I always had good shoes, but for some reason my parents buckled during our latest foray to the shoe store. The envy of boys throughout my school, never had I a pair of shoes like these amazing Nike’s. As I pulled myself out of the water, I looked down at my new shoes – soaked! At the time, I was convinced they were going to shrink or never dry or just be ruined. So, I sat there cold, soaking wet, and mad that my shoes were ruined for sure. Part of me wanted to toss my sister back in the water, but Grandma had already rushed her into get her warm.
My mom gushed when she heard the story. I think my dad bought me a new nintendo game or something. Once Reana was warm and dry, she even hugged me! I was my sisters little savior. But here’s the thing (and this is the real embarrassing part), rather than be excited or even full of myself for “saving her” I was still mad about the shoes! The next day at school, my buddy was telling everyone what had happened and all I could process was that I had to wear my stupid and ugly church penny loafers! Not Cool!
We talk a lot about salvation in the church – it’s kinda one of our buzz words! It’s one of the words we use to signify what God’s work is through us. It’s the purpose of the church to extend the “saving” work of Jesus to the world. This past week I was reminded where that word actually comes from. The greek word is sozo and it means salvation but it also means wholeness of healing. When we pray for salvation we’re praying for healing. When we’re praying for healing, we’re praying for a wholeness and salvation.
Salvation in it’s fullest sense then is so much more than a ticket outta hell. Salvation in it’s deepest sense has this underlying principle of making ALL things right. It seems to me then that Jesus’ offering of salvation is one for all of who I am. That means I’m saved, or at least offered, a whole lot more in salvation. I’m offered salvation of my soul – of my brokenness, of my wounded-ness, of the areas where I refuse to let God be God (like my anxieties and worry).
When I think back to my sister, I certainly was able to save her from drowning, but as I reflect, I was also given the opportunity to experience my own sense of sozo. I too was being an offered to wholeness. Instead of finding wholeness, I was caught up in my Jordan’s. Now, at 12 or 13 years old, I’m not going to beat myself up, but now that I’m older, do I still worry more about the Jordan’s than my full wholeness?
If I’m honest with myself I can look and see many ways, each day, where I’ve missed opportunities for a deeper work of salvation to occur in me. A lot of the time, I miss them because I’m worried about some other pair of Jordan’s that I’m pursuing – recognition, being right, my own ego, etc. Yet when I allow God’s whisper to engage my thought process, I usually find that I sense a little healing. When I actually embrace God’s move in my heart at those unique God moments I find a little more wholeness – I actually feel saved.
I think a lot of folks are drowning in circumstances and I wonder if we limit God’s salvation work in us to just something that is beyond – eternity in heaven? Do we realize that God’s offer of salvation (sozo) is for the whole? How much of our anxieties and fears and frustrations and inadequacies are really opportunities to experience God’s act of salvation today? I have found that God is just as interested in today as in some eternal bliss that is yet to come. God is a God of now and that means our wholeness is a part of God’s desire. Where would you like to see that wholeness take place in you? Where do you desire salvation? Will you listen to the whisper? It takes trust to seek that kind of wholeness, but remember, it’s this God who’s jumped in the water, nike’s and all!
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I empathize with your story Jim. I often find that I don't want to do what the Spirit is pulling me to do because I get tired of doing the things I think everyone should do. I also sometimes just flat out don't WANT to do the things that I'm being called to do, in an attempt to protect my new shoes. 🙂 But this is such a selfish reaction, and honestly, sort of bratty too. That being said, it's really hard sometimes to pull ourselves out of that mindset. We want things for our lives that may not agree with was God wants and when the Spirit pulls to towards those things we think we don't need, we react with "but I don't need that kind of healing." More often than not though, the reason the Spirit is moving in us is because we DO.