I Need Floaties

Jump into this moment with me. 
I was five or six years old. Light blond hair , blue eyes, and arms and legs too long to know what to do with. We were at a water park in Augusta, Georgia. I didn't know how to swim. I looked at the shiny, blue water aromatic with chlorine. The smell was just short of burning my eyes and nose. My daddy stood beside me all hulking six foot three of him and we were about to go in the water. I could drown; my long lanky arms and legs didn't understand how to move in a coordinated way to keep my curly head above the water. So, my daddy took my hand and we stepped down into the slow moving lazy river. The water tried to sweep me away but my daddy held onto me. Over the next hour my daddy held me at just the right height to teach me how to swim. I didn't learn how to swim perfectly that day, but I will always remember the moment when I stopped panicking at the thought of sinking because I knew that my daddy was not going to let me drown. I might go underwater but that was okay, I wasn't going to drown. 
Fast forward another seven or eight years. I am a very opinionated preteen. We were at the lake. My family had just upgraded from a bass fishing boat to a fish and ski boat.

 We went from something like this above to something like this below.

 Anyways, we had attached our tube to the back like we always did when we went to the lake. This time we had a bigger boat. It was stronger and faster. I had semi-mastered tubing on the bass boat. I stood on the back of the boat apprehensive as we hauled in my grinning daredevil younger sister. It was my turn. I had to get on the tube. So, I eased my weight on to the shifting and unstable thing. Why was I still scared? I had done this hundreds of times. I knew how to swim. You see, I had a lot of pride - a competitive streak that needed to be humbled. So there I was. I was perched on the tube with my knees on the sides and my hands hanging on for dear life. We hadn't even started moving. Then, my dad eased into motion careful not jerk the rope. We were moving along at a steady pace just skimming the top of the glassy warm water. We were going faster than I had ever tubed before but I had everything under control. So I decided that it was the time to move on to the moment of glory. I was going to stand up on the moving tube. My sister had done it with ease after seeing the older teenagers show off earlier in the day. So I put one foot on the side then the other. Now I only had to stand up. But to stand up I had to let go. There wasn't anything cool in standing but bent over. So I gradually let go. But since there are shores to any body of water, the boat eventually had to turn. Still marveling at my feat I did not expect this change in trajectory. I fell off in quite the ungraceful way. I was plunged into the colder water beneath the warm surface and panicking I fought the water. I couldn't get to the surface fast enough. One thing that impeded this process was my flailing. The thing is, I had on a life jacket. Once I let go of fighting the fact I was under the water, it quickly served its purpose and bounced me back to the surface. I came up blubbering and spitting out water because my mouth was open from screaming. When the boat circled around to pick me up, I declared that I was done for the day. No more tubing for me. That was embarrassing! Thankfully my family gave me a pep talk saying that yes, I was safest in the boat, but I was safe out on the water too. I had a life jacket on. I would not achieve any form of glory sitting in the boat. It was when I had the courage out of the water to do some trick that I ever brought any glory. So, what if I failed, I had my life jacket to trust in so that I could stand up again. 
Last week, it hit me how this is a fantastic metaphor. Yes we can sit in the comfortable boat of life thinking how wonderful life jackets are, but how much do we trust them and believe in them if we don't have the courage to allow them to take care of us. Jesus is our life jacket. We can praise him from our comfort zone and maybe that will lead some others to him. 
When we have the courage to risk it all to glorify Him because we know that we are His that is what really catches peoples attention. 
If you get out of the boat in order to bring glory but you don't have a life jacket, then you are going to bring a lot of notice to yourself but when you will fall nothing can help you but yourself and that will only get you so far. I know that I will always need Jesus to be my floaties if I am ever to survive this thing called life. I also know that I will have to trust him to carry me instead of trying to do everything on my own. 
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 TNIV