The Seven Keys To Spiritual Buoyancy: Total Dependence (Key Two) Series

The Seven Keys to Spiritual Buoyancy: Total Dependence (Key Two)

Introduction

Last week we began our journey into discovering the secrets of the apostle Paul's resilient spiritual life. We are calling them keys to spiritual buoyancy. Buoyancy is "the ability or tendency to float in water or air or some other fluid." It can also mean "an optimistic and cheerful disposition." We took the Biblical metaphor of life being like an ocean of chaos and unformed potential that can drown us and looked at Paul's trials and asked how he could stay afloat despite all that he faced. In 2 Corinthians there are seven principles that we can discover. The first was "The Ministry of Consolation." Psychological researchers have found that there is power in reframing parts of our story that can be therapeutic and help us move forward in our lives. When we look at our pain through the lens that asks who we can help because of what we have been through, it puts purpose in our pain. Our pain is no longer meaningless. Jesus was tempted and went to the cross so that He could help us overcome any temptation.

Today, we move on to the second principle. It is found in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 (NIV):

"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."

Here Paul again reframes his difficulties, but in a little different way. He says that rather than drowning him, his difficulties caused him to come to a place of total dependence upon God. He learned total dependence.

One of the things that causes people to drown is panic. As it is in the natural world, so it is in the spiritual. When we are reactive, we thrash and fight and lose against forces that are overwhelming to us, but when we relax in Him we float. Remember the poem about "The Cork and the Whale"?

A little brown cork

Fell in the path of a whale

Who lashed it down

With his angry tail.

But, in spite of the blows,

It quickly arose,

And floated serenely

Before his nose.

Said the cork to the whale,

“You may flap and sputter and frown,

But you never, never can keep me down:

For I’m made of the stuff

That is buoyant enough

To float instead of to drown.”

The key to spiritual success is not in striving, but in yielding. Let's talk about developing the spiritual discipline of total dependence.

1. Leaning On The Everlasting Arms

In the church I grew up in we sang a classic hymn written by Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha A. Hoffman. The lyrics are:

1 What a fellowship, what a joy divine,

leaning on the everlasting arms;

what a blessedness, what a peace is mine,

leaning on the everlasting arms.

Refrain:Leaning, leaning,

safe and secure from all alarms;

leaning, leaning,

leaning on the everlasting arms.

2 O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,

leaning on the everlasting arms;

O how bright the path grows from day to day,

leaning on the everlasting arms. [Refrain]

3 What have I to dread, what have I to fear,

leaning on the everlasting arms?

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,

leaning on the everlasting arms. [Refrain]

The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989

The inspiration for the song's refrain is Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." To lean is "to incline, deviate, or bend from a vertical position", "to cast one's weight to one side for support", and "to rely on for support or inspiration." This hymn illustrates the principle of total dependence well. Paul had learned that if he would lean on the Lord in times of distress or difficulty, he would float and not drown. When learning to swim one of the first lessons is learning to float, and floating takes very little effort. You just relax and let the law of buoyancy do the work. The water is transformed from an enemy to a friend that causes you to float.

The truth is that we can do everything better when we are calm. Reactivity will drown us every time, but when we learn to respond to life's circumstances by appealing to higher laws, we can learn to float and not drown.

It is easier to lean upon someone when we know they love us. The writer of Song of Solomon asks this question, "Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?" The wilderness in Scripture is like the sea, a place of chaos and unformed potential, a place where jackals and dragons and scorpions live. But, in this poem, the young lover comes traipsing from the wilderness leaning on the one she loves. The wilderness couldn't destroy her because she was with someone who couldn't be destroyed by its desolation.