Alright, close your eyes and envision yourself standing next to a body of water. Now, open your eyes so you can keep reading... For the sake of this post being short and simple, I'm going to narrow down your options to two: you can dip, or you can dive.
I usually walk into any body of water thinking it's absolutely freezing, regardless of how cold it actually is. I take my precious time to fully immerse myself. I dip my arms in, then slowly my shoulders. The worst part is when your stomach goes under--SO cold! And finally, I realize I just need to dive in. >>Usually, it's because some stupid boy is splashing me because my hair is still dry, and apparently that's something they should be concerned about. <<
Why do we let ourselves suffer like this, dragging on the process of acclimating to the water when we could just dive in, and in seconds, be much more comfortable?
Similarly, why do we think that there's anything wrong with FULLY immersing ourselves in the pursuit of Christlike-ness? (Nope, that's not a word.) We think that life will be easier if we just pick and choose what we'll accept and live of the Gospel. We say we can go to church, read scriptures, pray, etc, and we can still judge people and have a raging potty mouth. We've all got our different combos of what we readily live and what takes a little more guts for us to embrace.
The lake of Christlike-ness doesn't easily accommodate dippers. It requests divers. We won't be comfortable on the path if we're not willing to just dive in and immerse ourselves in the... ohohoh... living water. (I didn't even plan that.) Eventually, we'll realize that life is just going to be easier that way instead of trying to swim in it with only half of our body in the water.
It's convenient for this metaphor that the first parts of your body that go in the water are your feet and legs. The parts that take a little more guts are your head and your heart. It's easy to walk the walk, but it's harder to feel the feels.
