Dive!

Dive!

When you’re sure the water’s deep enough, the best way to enter a freezing-cold river is not to wade or ease in. It’s to dive. Waders would surely reconsider the second the chilled water met their toes. (I almost did when I tested it with mine.) But when four other slightly crazy adults decided to commemorate the New Year by plunging into the Frio River on a bright December afternoon, I thought, Why not?

It was something I’d never done before. But since it was my birthday, too, I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate. I didn’t have a swimsuit (who packs that in the dead of winter, for Pete’s sake?), but when the water is freezing, blue jeans and two T-shirts make for more appropriate attire.

So at two thirty in the afternoon with the cameras of saner people poised to record the moment, the five of us went off the dock and into the river. Just before we did, I turned to the friend on my right (also a birthday girl) and asked her, “Jump or dive?” She said, “Dive,” and on the count of three, we did.

How does it feel to hit the river in deep December? Electrifying. Breathtaking. Shocking. I’m pretty sure I screamed when I surfaced, and I couldn’t turn around and swim back to the dock fast enough. But it was oddly exhilarating, too. Freeing. I felt jolted awake and utterly alive. And although I doubt I was in the water for more than thirty seconds, I believe I left more than a few needless things behind when I climbed out.

Like the grown-up fear of looking foolish. Regret at a precious moment lost. Uncertainty, procrastination, and an adult-sized fondness for appearing artfully poised and in control. Because when real life beckons—when a jarring challenge awaits—when a cold river you’re facing crooks its finger and says, “I dare you,” the surest way to avoid retreat (and regret!) is to breathe deeply, close your eyes, and dive.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10, ESV