Swimming

The summer of 1961, I worked forty hours a week for Miss Vogel.  She had a four-story stone house in Churchville that was built in 1770 with five acres of grass to mow.  I got paid $10 a day - $50 a week.  That was great money for an eighth-grade boy!  My mother would pick me up from work, and I would be hot and sweaty.  Often, she would bring my younger brother with her and take us both to Deer Creek to cool off in the water.  But my mother was terrified of the water.  She would make us wear those orange, kapok-filled life preservers.  Even with those life preservers on, Mom watched us like a hawk.  No foolishness allowed in that “dangerous water”.  After a month of swimming, we noticed that the life preservers seemed heavier than usual.  We discovered that they were water-logged.  My brother and I had learned to swim, and we were dragging around those useless life preservers in the water.  They were actually pulling us down. Hey, often the cares of this life pull at us and pull us down.  Worries about money; cares about our children; fears of the future.  If we would just roll them over onto the strong shoulders of our Lord, He would bear them for us.  Too often we drag our troubles around with us, just like those water-logged life-preservers, when we could have freedom and release if we would just trust in Jesus Christ.  Friend, let Him take your burdens.  Let Jesus carry your load and rest in His love!