Mitchell

As a lifeguard in high school, the beginning of the summer was always the most competitive time of the year. You see, as the summer was kicking off, all of the parents were making arrangements with their child’s favorite lifeguard to have private lessons. I suppose the popularity thing made it competitive, but the private lessons also paid double what we typically made.

During my first year I got a call from the regional center to set up a lesson for Mitchell Dunn. After asking if they had any preference for a lifeguard I pounced on the opportunity and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Mitchell was going to be taking a double session – almost the entire summer! Ka-Ching! Little did I know, I was going to earn every penny.

Mitchell arrived at the pool and after introductions his teacher informed me that Mitchell was in his mid-twenties but had the capacity of a grade-schooler. She said that he minds his manners...most of the time. After getting changed I jumped into the water and asked Mitchell to come and get in with me; he refused (rather emphatically). That first “lesson” basically consisted of me and Mitch walking around the pool so he could introduce himself to everyone there. By the end of the session I had convinced Mitchell to sit on the edge of the pool and put his feet in the water. There was a brief screaming incident once he put his feet in, but other than that he was fine.

For two summers I gave Mitchell private lessons, and I got to see him move from being scared of the water to getting in, and eventually even swimming. Mitchell learned to put his head under water, and after about a year and a half he swam 25 meters across the deep end of the pool all by himself. Sure there was some screaming, one biting (he bit me, not the other way around), a few names that shouldn’t be repeated, but he did it. He could swim.

Perhaps we were feeling a little cocky, or maybe we needed a new challenge after Mitchell had conquered swimming in the deep water, but one day I told Mitch that he was going to jump off the high board and swim back all on his own. Well, that idea stuck in his head and from that point on, from the time he arrived to the time he left, Mitch would ask over and over again, “Go off the high board now?”

A couple weeks into the incessant questions (and one successful jump off the low board) I decided it was time – Mitchell was going to jump off the high board. I’ll never forget watching him climb to the top of the board and meekly make his way toward the edge. He stood there for several minutes using every excuse he could think of until he finally looked at me and said, “I’ll jump now”.

By this point many of the mothers at the pool were interested, and the aerobics class was just finishing up so many of those ladies stayed behind to cheer on Mitchell. Of course Mitch had been telling every lifeguard for a few weeks that he was going to jump off the high board so when they saw him up there they came out of the guard house to watch. So there we were, shading our eyes looking up at Mitchell as he stared down at the water, trying to muster the courage to jump.

Mitchell would bend his knees, hold his breath with his cheeks puffed out....and then...he would stand up and shuffle his feet and mutter. He did this several times, and thus the audience was really getting into it. Mitchell crouched down and his knees started knocking, causing the board to shake...but this time he did it, he jumped! Mitchell swam to the side, got out of the water, and ran through the crowd to give everyone a high-five. (I know running is against the rules, but we let it slide)

So often I talk to people who have followed God and his leading right up to the edge of the high-board and once they get there their knees start knocking and suddenly God’s plan doesn’t look so good anymore. It may be taking the leap to go on summer project, share Christ with a parent or friend, or to reach out to co-workers. I’m so grateful to be in a position where I get to experience stories from around the state of students following God’s leading, pushing through their knocking knees, and jumping into the deep end. I rarely hear of how God simply made it easy, but often hear of how trusting God through the fear and the unknown has changed them, marked them for a lifetime.

I don’t know what your high-board is, but I do know that if God has brought you this far, the leap will be worth it. I’ll be on the pool deck waiting to give you five.