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Rebalanced!

“Heading out to the Y to rebalance”.

I send that out by text, normally twice a week.  It’s code.

Well, it’s not like code words used in cloak and dagger stuff.  It is much more boring than that.  It’s a text I send to my wife two days a week when I leave from work and head to the YMCA to swim laps during my lunch break.  I want someone to know where I am going in case something happens.

The rebalance thing…

After nearly 30 years of swimming laps, swimming for me has mostly become a very mechanical thing.  That is, I don’t have to think much about what I am doing or concentrate on it.  I just swim back and forth. 

But more so, as I enter into this mechanical state of swimming, I’m able to use the time to think and pray.  I can turn something over and over in my mind and look at it from different angles, sometimes resulting in some level clarity or even a decision.

And while I wouldn’t want to try to build a case for the “spirituality of swimming”, I will say that I appreciate some of the words Jeremiah used when he wrote the following:  “For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear His word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened.”  (Jer 23:18).

As I swim back and forth alone with my thoughts, sometimes I enter into a time of meditating on portions of His word I’ve memorized, thus paying attention to it.

So whether I think or pray or I’m attentive to his word, I often feel rebalanced when I’m done swimming.

My text code to my wife when I get back to work is:  rebalanced!

  

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