I recently watched the wonderful Pixar flick Finding Nemo again. It is certainly one of my favorite Disney cartoons, and I hadn’t seen it for while. I was struck this time by something that had escaped my attention before. There was an underlying repetitive message in the movie of “just keep swimming”. It is Dory’s refrain throughout most of the movie, and there are a couple points when it is used to encourage other fish as well. The basic idea is no matter what you may be facing “just keep swimming” and it will be okay.
This idea of “just keep trying” is in large part the motto of the world. “When the world has got you down just keep on keeping on.” It seems when we are confronted with the unknown or our lack of control of our lives we tell ourselves and each other to just keep trying. Have you ever heard that before? Often times it can be passed off as faith. “I don’t know how this is gonna play out, but I am just going to try to do my best and trust God with the results.” Or “As long as I am faithful to keep going and not give up, God will honor that.”
It seems we are terrified to lose the ability to do something, to truly be out of control. As a result, we still insist on the fact that there is always something we can do even though we don’t know what it is. We get so vague to the point that we are satisfied to simply say: “Just try”. Try what? Everything we’ve tried hasn’t worked so far, but we don’t pay attention to that.
This appeal to our ability has been very loud as of late. During the recent election it was almost a battle cry against the hard times our country is currently facing. It was on the posters; it was chanted at the rallies: “Yes We Can! Yes We Can!” It is the human spirit, and, like Bruce Willis, it dies hard.
That is exactly what happens though when the denial is brought to an abrupt halt, our faith in our ability dies. We can keep the act going for a surprisingly long time, but it will end because life always happens. Cancer happens. Divorce happens. Addiction happens. Flat tires happen. Bankruptcy happens. Death happens. There is always something that comes up that cannot be answered with more trying. We are knocked flat, and we cannot keep swimming. We sink.
This is where we are met with real hope. The cross of Christ stands in our face and says “No You Can’t! But He can and did.”
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COMMENTS
18 responses to “Just Stop Swimming”
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Sean –
Great post. I totally agree that the “yes we can” mentality is completely flawed.
That being said, is there a place for “walking by faith and not by sight”, trusting that, in the midst of all of life’s difficulties, God is actually at work for our good?
I know that, for me, the idea that God is in control of everything and actually loves me, despite what sometimes appears to be the case, is deeply encouraging, that it enables me to keep “swimming.”
What do you think?
rj
Wow, that’s a really fantastic start to a potentially very long, albeit fascinating discussion. Why? Because there is so much involved.
“Yes we can.” Can… what? What is it, precisely that we “can”? Yet, the thing that most find attracting in this, I would guess, is the sort of catch-all hope. But your points allude to the flaw in this thinking. We need a SOURCE of hope – and unfortunately for us, no President will ever be able to be the perfect one. No matter how good, they’ll always have something up.
I was talking with a friend of a friend over the phone the other day, who asked me about my recent marriage. Essentially, I had only good to say. When I asked him of his, having been married a few years now, he said “Well, we’re out of the honeymoon stage.” And went on to say that in actuality, his relationship with God has been on the rocks for about 5 years now, he struggles with depression etc. He’s been “Trying” to get in good with God, trying to be more passionate, pray more, etc. etc.
I paused and asked him “Maybe you need to stop trying. Maybe you need to give up. Let God work in you. Cry out in desperation and be real before Him, and just see…”
He seemed almost shocked. But I think we often want to mold, create, be in control of our relationship with God, as well as everything else: our mood, relationships, career…
As you so eloquently stated, perhaps we simply need to stop. Sit back. Welcome God, yell at God, tell God – allow Him to work in us, instead of having us try to work on Him.
Thank you for the post.
Blessings,
Hawley
Thanks for this great post. It speaks volumes about our dre need for God and the gracious God we truly need.
Hey RJ,
I think that being enabled to swim and being determined to swim are two very different things.
In the movie the repetitive mantra of “just keep swimming” is more a matter of will power. If it were coming from a place of freedom (i.e. a knowledge that it is not up to you, but up to God) it seems to me that there would not be a need to keep telling yourself and others the same thing over and over again. It seems to me to be more consistent with the outside-in (Aristotelian) view of humanity; you make up your mind about something, will it into action, and then your heart follows suit.
In this case the focus seems to be on the swimming itself (the action, our action), and I think that is always dangerous. It takes our focus off of His action for us.
I think in the apostle Paul’s case we have something between the antinomian and the nomian. We have instead, “keep swimming because someone has already swum (swam?) it for you.” I’ve been studying 1 Corinthians 5 for the last two weeks straight, and I can’t get over how odd Paul is with his imperatives and his indicatives. He browbeats the Corinthians to be what they already are….he advocated anything but passivity.
christopher –
I’ve also been giving 1Co some thought, since Paul is pretty harsh. It seems to me (and let me know what you think) that Paul goes after the Corinthians for being genuinely antinomian. They thought the law ceased to exist, that they could do whatever they wanted with no repercussion whatsoever and that, in some sense, it was their sin that justified them because it showed just how much they “got it,” i.e. how much they “understood” God’s grace.
In response to this, then, Paul simply calls them back to reality, namely that what they are doing has real consequences, that it is still sinful and hurtful.
Thinking through how this (might) relate to passivity, then, Paul is calling the Corinthians away from trying to “actively” justify themselves through their unrighteousness (“look how much we get the Gospel – we can do ANYTHING”) and to simply (passively?) pay attention to the reality that what they are doing is hurting themselves.
It seems to me that the Corinthian and Galatian churches had similar, yet opposite, problems, in that they were both trying to justify themselves, the former with their law-breaking, the latter with their law-keeping.
What do you think? Is that total nonsense?
rj
Hi All,
The thing that we don’t have to do is satisfy the demands of the Law. The Law demands perfect obedience (Fearing, Loving and Trusting God above all things-Luther’s shorter catechism) and it also demands the death of the one who breaks it. Jesus Christ’s work was to satisfy these twin demands of the Law by living a perfect life as our substitute and dying a brutal death as our substitute. Jesus satisfied the law and this is Justification.
When the Law begins to work in our lives and brings sin to life, we then are brought to death (romans 7). This death leads us to Christ, where we are justified by faith alone. We are no longer under the Law (IN ANY SENSE). The Law continues to accuse us, even as Christians (LEX SEMPER ACCUSAT) and it simply reveals progressively deeper levels of our depravity and weakness. The true sign of growth in Christianity is that you think you are worse than when you first believed.
Hypothetical objection, “Shall we continue sinning then so that we can be sure of our Christian growth?”
Answer: “By no means, we died to sin how can we live in it any longer”
Interpretation: “Through the law, our sin was aroused to the point that it destroyed us. This destruction brought us to feel a deep sense of powerless and conclude that sin is indeed “utterly sinful”. We cried out “O what a wretched person I am, who will save me!??” We came to understand that Jesus Christ came to satisfy the Law and bring it to an end. We rejoiced in this good news. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN THUS DESTROYED BY SIN ACTIVELY GO BACK TO IT IN SUCH A BRAZEN AND CAVALIER WAY AS TO SAY ‘I WILL JUST BLESS MYSELF IN MY SIN SO GRACE CAN INCREASE’?
Answer: THEY WOULDN’T!!!!!! YOU ARE EITHER A SLAVE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS OR A SLAVE TO SIN.
So if someone says it is good to sin so grace can abound, they simply need to be killed! That’s all. Sin is not utterly sinful to them, but a delight. Therefore, the Law must attack and accuse that person’s audacious thought.
Now we serve in the New way of the Spirit and not the old way of the written code.
No one has to tell us what to do. We can study the Law of God ourselves and it describes our sinful condition afresh and drive us through the same cycle all over again. We then are brought to the foundation of Christ’s work once again. As this cycle continues for the rest of our lives, we think we are getting worse, but others see us getting better.
Dave Louis
I love this blog.
As PZ would say, A constant returning to the same old story from a new perspective.
That is what you guys do for me regularly.
Thanks to you all, and thanks to our God for his unending Grace and Mercy.
Cheers
Bj
Dave, that comment deserves its own separate post. Very, very good work!
-Colton
RJ, thanks for your good words. I too think that Paul is dealing with some sort of proto-antinomianism at Corinth. This is likely why he is harsh, even as he clearly keeps his indicatives before his imperatives as he always does.
But I’m still trying to figure out the commands to live a certain way (to clean out the bad leaven, if you will). Is the call to remove the offending person Missional—for the purpose of witness? Is the call based upon a covenant typology that sees the church as Israel (or new Israel), and thus still responsible for holiness? Or is this merely an exhortation to the church re: an unsaved person that just needs to be kicked back out into the world until he gets it or dies?
So I hear what you’re saying, and I get it, but I only think it’s part of the story. There’s something else going on here for Paul that has to do with Israel, the holiness/witness of the church, and actively living into the reality of their new life in the spirit.
I suspect these comments might raise some hackles here, but I just don’t see how we can spin Paul’s exhortations as yet another example of “passively rest in the gospel.”
There’s clearly some sense in which, for Paul, we are called to represent who we truly are through action, whether it be mourning, excommunication, or something else.
I welcome any suggestions…
Christopher,
I think you are right that Paul is indeed calling for action in 1 Corinthians 5. However, I think it is fair to put Paul’s exhortations under the microscope of the Law elevated by Jesus in Matthew 5. If what Christ says about the Law is true, and it is in fact all about the heart, then every single person in the church in Corinth would have to be “put out”. They would all be guilty of immorality, and I am convinced they were just as every human being has been since day one. After all none of us are able to keep the Law.
I think this is a situation where we are forced to interpret the minors through the majors as Paul Zahl used to say.
Hey Christopher,
As you said:
I suspect these comments might raise some hackles here, but I just don’t see how we can spin Paul’s exhortations as yet another example of “passively rest in the gospel.”
Nobody (that I am aware of) on this blog would advocate “passively resting in the Gospel”, I would say we should “actively live in the Gospel”.
Now, I agree with you that we have to deal with Paul’s exhortations in 1 Corinthians. I would interpret these exhortations as Paul using the ministry of the Law which brings brokenness to those who are “babes in Christ”. In other words, the apostle Paul never intended these exhortations to motivate change, rather he intended them to bring about godly sorrow in them (as we learn later in 2 Corinthians chapter 7).
I would like to follow up with Sean’s point regarding the Sermon on the mount. The ministry of Jesus is filled with “exhortations” that are designed to spiritually kill people and not motivate them to holy living.
Here is a thesis that I think is true:
The exhortations of the Law can only produce 3 effects, the first 2 harmful and the third beneficial; it can produce a hypocrite/pharisee, it can produce an angry, resentful & bold sinner, OR it can produce a broken, humbled and destroyed human who is ready for Christ.
Finally, what about when Jesus says in the sermon on the mount that if our eye causes us to sin, we should pluck it out? Quite an exhortation!!! Or what about when Jesus says in Luke that we have to hate our family in order to follow him?
Dear Sean, RJ and Dave,
Thanks for the good thoughts. I agree with you that that the purpose of the law is to lead us to Christ, I’m just not so sure that Jesus and Paul were speaking hyperbolically though.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Luther’s phrase, “love God and sin boldly.” And I’ve been thinking a lot about what Paul might make of that phrase. I think Paul might have hated that phrase of Luther’s.
Paul, in my mind, would have said, “love God and live righteously” and he would have been making the same point as Luther.
I don’t know. Good thoughts. I’m off to dinner.
Christopher,
That phrase from Luther has been taken out of context so many times. It is in fact here that Luther is speaking in hyperbole. This phrase is found in a letter he wrote to Melanchton who was in distress of conscience at the time. Check out the link:
http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti19047.html
Also, (and Chris I am trying to express this point with humor, which is hard to express in a blog), I assume I am blogging with Christopher, the one eyed, one handed man who hates his father, mother and other family members. You DID say that you weren’t sure if Jesus was speaking in hyperbole:)
Dave Louis
Sean, this is a timely and provocative articulation of the consequences of the Gospel.
it seems that much of the debate surrounds an antithesis between action and faith. Although this antithesis is helpful, it’s also only part of the story. Faith is the end/death of ourselves and our actions, yet it is also the birth of true action/love. Put another way, in faith we are freed from the law, for love, which fulfills the law.
So is faith active or passive? Well… yes.
That’s how I’ve come to think about all this.
Thanks Todd,
I think everyone is right to affirm the fact that we don’t just sit on the couch all day, but are actually inspired to love because of the work of Christ. “The love of Christ compels you.”
The original intent of this post was to speak to the fact that the worldly exhortation to just keep swimming is extremely unhelpful to someone who has been confronted with the reality of who they really are. When the Law has not been compromised and is held to the height at which Jesus taught it one cannot continue to try or swim or whatever. They are, as many have pointed out already in their comments, being put to death or dead already. Their effort has proven worthless.
A person in this spot does not care one bit about “life after the cross” because their is no such thing to them. They are in the grave and they are desperate for Someone to come and pull them out, to breathe life into their dry bones. The cross is the end for them. Christ’s work is the end for them. It is all that matters. They don’t wonder what life looks like after they’ve been saved, they only care that they might be saved and be given life after death. This is because they cannot see past the insurmountable wall that is the Law. their sin drags them down, down, down. Their action is irrelevant. They are passive by definition.
I think we often fall into worrying about what the Christian life looks like, which to me is a signal that we have forgotten or have compromised on the the reality of the Law continuing to accuse. As David rightly pointed out, a person who is not in touch with their desperate sinful state needs to be killed. As PZ always said, “Just wait for it. It will happen.” That’s what I was talking about at the end of the post. The reality of our helplessness smacks us in the face and we find out that we our unable to act except to make things worse.
In light of this, I think I should not have suggested that if people “just stop trying” things would be better. What I really wanted to do was to give permission to those who find themselves in that place of death that they do not and actually cannot keep swimming. They are being stopped, and the hope is that they will also be lifted up.
I agree Sean. Sorry if I took the blog off topic. I’ve spent far too much time in 1 Cor 5 lately!
No worries Chris! I thought you brought up some very important questions. “Iron sharpens iron” right?