Lily Pads and “The World”

There is a game at the community pool that requires great skill and dexterity. To meet the goal of the game, you need patience and timing, balance and the ability to use imbalance, and just a pinch of luck. It is a game we only know as the lily pads, and the objective of this game is to not get wet. You scurry (some even run) across the floating pads and try not to fall into the water. I have no idea why it is so popular with the kids. On a hot day, I want nothing more than to jump into some water! But no, there is a certain pride in having dry swim trunks.

Isn’t there a certain parallel between this game and the way Christians live their lives? We can easily fall into the trap of making a timed leap from one goal to the next, always trying to land in the middle of dryness, never falling into the world around us. So we only play on the church softball league and we only listen to the Christian radio stations (and Rush Limbaugh. Mustn’t forget Rush!), we avoid the corner of the convenience store where the beer is displayed and are never found anywhere near a tattoo parlor, heaven forbid! Why, what would Jesus think if we were to be seen in such places? Worse yet, what would the people we know from church think if they saw us there? What would Jesus do?

Luke 7:34
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

To go back to the imagery I began the post with, Jesus would slip off the lily pad and go into the world, to seek those He came to find and to be nourished by doing the work of His father. To one who longs to walk as Jesus walked, there is no pride to be found in dry swim trunks but in a suit soaked from the work to be found all around them. But what about the matter of not being like the world around us? Aren’t we missing the mark if we associate with such “undesirables” as those who have sinned against the laws of God and the traditions of man? It is my contention that many people who look to Romans 12:2 need to continue on to Romans 12:3.

Romans 12:2-3
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

We are no better than those around us. There is nothing in us that makes us any more worthy of grace than the sinners of the world. If there were, then grace would be held captive to the opinions of man. In summary, grace would cease to be grace and we would have a religion of works and not of the free gift of faith. We would be clean on the outside of the cup, but remain dirty on the inside and be useless to both God and man. By fearing God, we are enabled to love man with spirit of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). If we pick and choose who to associate with based on their cleanness, we place our desires before the will of God. Legalism is the ultimate conclusion of such thinking.

So the next time you are at the aquatic center in Ankeny, Iowa (you do hang out there, right?) look at the foolishness of the lily pads as the children sweat and labor, pouring all of their resources into the goal of remaining as they are. Sweaty, hot and uncomfortable. And if you see some guy who looks like he should be too dignified to be on such a game, laugh with me when I fall off the second lily pad into the cool, refreshing water.