Learning to Breathe Underwater

Patricia came to quilt class this week with a strange announcement.  “God told me to sew the blocks together without pins.”

Now I am a pinner.  Pinning keeps the blocks aligned as you stitch them into rows, and then stitch the rows together to form the body of the quilt.  If the alignment is off as you sew together the components, the entire quilt is off.  But what could I say to Patricia?  If God told you to sew without first pinning, who am I to suggest otherwise.

So, Patricia sewed the blocks into rows, carefully lining up the edges, without pins.  And the rows looked fabulous. 

A few days later I was in my prayer room one morning and got the sensation that I was at a sparkling, blue pool of water, and God was telling me, “Dive in”.  I love how God knows me.  He knows that I love to be in the pool. It’s one of the highlights of my yearly vacationto Williamsburg, VA.  God also knows that I love, have always loved swimming underwater, completely immersed.  I am not a diver, had no idea the depth of the pool or if it was even safe to dive in, but God was telling me to dive in and I did and I felt the wonderful water all around me as I hit the water.

As I swam that morning in prayer, I remembered what my pastor, Brett Conover had shared with the church some time ago.  “We are learning to breathe underwater.”

We are learning to go where God directs, do what he tells us to do, even when it looks quite impossible, or even kind of crazy.  Like sewing without pins.  Like laying hands on a building and calling forth its destiny as a House of Hope. Like diving into a 21 day prayer journey throughout Europe and trusting God for words and prayers in each location. 

“Do you trust me?” God asks.  “Dive in.  Follow my heart and you will learn that you CAN breathe underwater.”