You are sitting in the dunk tank. Your feet are dangling above the cold water. You know it’s freezing because your pinky toe just grazed the water. A shiver runs down your spine. The so called mini diving board you are sitting on is unstable. You can hear the rusty hinge squeak as you squirm in your seat. You are restless. You start to ask yourself,
Why am I even here in the first place?
But it is too late. All of a sudden WHAM.
A ball soars and misses the target by an inch.
You know that the moment that target is hit you are flopping into Arctic.
BAM.
Another one. You flinch a little bit but you are safe.
Seconds later, the hinge screams.
Your body crashes into the ice and your head dips underwater.
This dunk tank has one of those clear sides. The kind of dunk tank where the person throwing the ball can see you slam into the water.
Once you fall into the water, it starts to get murkier.
Underwater, you realize you did not see who was throwing the balls. Your eyes were focused on the water. The moment you open your eyes you see God.
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As humans we are all born onto the ledge of some dunk tank. We are sitting on an unstable surface. We know at any minute our stability can be crushed. My goodness, it’s petrifying.
This stirs up a lot of questions in our hearts.
Like,
Why am I here?
Where is my God?
Why am I so afraid?
And then all of a sudden we are plunged into the water by a difficulty. We are dunked.
In this water, we become many things.
Frantic, frozen, and fearful.
The water is painful.
The water is suffering.
The concept of human suffering in relation to God is a Rubik’s cube. In it rests many dimensions, by time and trial, we twist the puzzle and discern the truth.
I have a question for you?
In the story above how many of you assumed that God was throwing the balls at the target?
I am sure a lot of you.
And this is what we do.
We hold this view of our God as a coach that trains us to the point of breaking.
When you opened your eyes, you did in fact see God.
He was there for you.
To finish the story, when you see God you stare into His eyes.
You see Jesus Christ.
Who sat on that same dunk tank. The dunk tank of humanity.
In God you do not have a coach that pushes you to your breaking point, but rather a coach that has become a player.
Our God, watches us and reminds us…
Wherever we are He is our stability.
When you fell into the water, it definitely became dirtier.
Chunks of mud began floating.
In the frantic movement of your limbs….
In the crying out….
In the dunking….
You were cleaned.
The grime of disbelief began to dissolve. The mud of sin that had been caked onto your skin has become visible. The dirt weighing down your soul has been removed.
For in the cold water of the dunk tank—in the suffering’s of this life.
We are renewed and restored.
By a God who chose to join us on that unstable board, and continue to watch over us throughout all the falls.
All the daily dunks.
In this life the balls will fly from all over the place and hit the target.
All stability will be lost.
But in that moment of panic, is the moment of peace.
The cold water is not to be feared, but seen as a bath.
A bath that helps us see our own skin, recognize our dirtiness, and see Him.
When we are above the water.
We stare down in fear.
We lose sight of the goal.
But
Underwater, with no stability and immersed in fear, we open our eyes. Through the window of the dunk tank, we see the face of our God.
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