Accountability-It's either sink or swim...

Do you remember what it feels like to be underwater? Your eyes are closed, yet you can still somehow "see" the huge shifts of light change underneath your eyelids. Could be from a person standing above you if your in a pool, or a cloud, but you can see it even if your eyes are closed. You can feel, well, water everywhere around you. Your submerged in it, it envelopes your very being....after a while you resurface and look back at where you came from. Your sense of direction can be pretty messed up can't it?  Either you've veered off course completely or your miraculously on track to where you imagined you'd be.

I can think back to this summer in July when I decided to swim across Blue Lake for no apparent reason on a family vacation. It's actually the lake you see in the picture above and below. Ok, I lie, maybe I wasn't about to be shown up by my cousins who do it every year. Every swimmer is assigned a boatsman who looks out for the general well being of the swimmer, providing them with water, food, and general direction. If other boats come near they can wave them off, or simply yell positive reinforcement.

As I started across this lake, I didn't realize A) Even though how large it looked, how much bigger it was when I was in it, and B) How much energy I would have to exert just to get through it. The first few hundred meters were a breeze. I remember swimming it freesyle thinking "Who needs a boat, I most certainly don't need one I'll be done in 20 minutes!" After 500 meters my arms were burning and I realized I wasn't even a quarter of the way done. I was forced to alternate between a form of freestyle and swimming on my back. Being on your back is one of the more difficult things because not only do you NOT see what's in front of you but waves wash over your face which is never fun. I also couldn't hear or see my boat due to me having to keep my eyes closed and my ears were beneath the surface. I remember being underwater and coming up for a stroke to hear my mom yelling "DA-" (I took another stroke before coming up to acknowledge her) "DANIEL!" As I looked up and around I realized I was veering completely off the middle of the course we had decided upon before I set out. With proper guidance I was able to get back on track. Every few minutes I would hear her yelling my name through the waves, flip around and look, readjust and continue swimming.
It took me a good hour to finish the swim, and at the end of it my arms were dead. All the swimmers got to enjoy a nice tow back to the other side courtesy of the Boatsman. On reflection, I realized how much I needed a boatsman to wave off other boats, encourage me, and keep me on track. How much more difficult would it have been for me if I would have brushed my mother off and told her to go "watch" another cousin of mine swim? I probably wouldn't have made it very far, and would have struggled even more.

Think to your own life. Who holds you accountable? Who can you rely on and lean on for advice? If you think you can do it all by yourself, I would encourage you to find someone who you can lean on and trust. As stated in Provebers 27:17 " As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another." You don't have to be a Bible tooting Christian to appreciate the simple words from that Proverbs passage. It's simple to read and understand, but for many of us it's a hard passage to live out and grasp.
The point of it all? Get someone in your life who you can be accountable to, and who can strengthen you in your daily walk in life....or swim.