LEVELS PART I (Levels of Maturity)

I am a Father of four beautiful and well mannered children, three daughters and one son. One of the things God has really been dealing with me on is my relationship with my kids. This week my wife and the two younger kids (Jevon and Markaila) had a great time on work/vacation. I say work/vacation because every year for the last 21 years I have been blessed to go on this African-American themed cruise where I go to run the Gospel activities for the week. I’ll tell you more about that at another time.

I got time to really spend some quality time with my family, in particular my two younger kids, Jevon and Markaila. One of the activities they love to do is swimming. Markaila lightweight knows how to swim. She glides through the water but she goes all the way under. Jevon does not know how to swim at all. He needs the help of a floating device. I haven’t taught him how to swim yet. One of the issues with that is all three of the pools on the boat are four and a half feet. He was only allowed to go on the water slide since the water slide only is like ankle depth. I noticed my daughter would get in the four and half feet, but she wasn’t comfortable. Let’s fast forward a little bit and I’ll circle back to this point later.

So we finish the cruise and get off the ship on Sunday and take like a 15 minute ride to the hotel where we are staying over for a night before flying back home the next day. We check into the hotel and I told the kids, “You guys can go swimming today because we have a whole day to chill and hang out and half the day tomorrow.” I take them down and I am laying back in the pool chair reading my book and getting some inspiration and motivation so that I can continue my maturation in the midst of my situation. We’ll have to revisit that thought later as well.

We go back upstairs to break and have lunch. I decided I would put on my shorts and join them in the pool. I get downstairs and I started to only put my feet in for a little while because I just wanted to read my book. However, I so sensed something divine here and I decided to just walk around in the water. As I began to move around I noticed the level of water we were in was only three feet. Fine for the kids but I am six-three. Jevon is almost four feet but he wants a floating device. 

Now, I watched him go through this for a while now and I decided that I am going to teach him right here and right now. I was very reluctant at first because I knew that he was afraid to go under the water. Two years ago we brought them on the trip and he was afraid to go under the water then as well. Keep in mind, we live in San Francisco. Needless to say, we don’t have great, warm swimming type weather here often. Yes, I know I can always get him some swimming lessons. That’s my next plan but stick to the story because there is something to learn here. So as I was feeling led, I said to Jevon, “Come here.” He swam with this beautifully decorated, blue, white and yellow floating device around him up to where I was standing still in 3 feet of water. I said, “Jevon, get out of the floatie. He climbed out and I could tell he had no clue what I was about to say to him next. I called, “Jevon,” as I tried to keep my voice kind of calm so as not to alarm him. “Come over here. It’s time to learn to swim.” Saying he looked like a deer in headlights, would be a severe understatement. I took his hand and said, “Jevon, let’s go under.” He got really quiet. I told him to hold his breath and close his mouth. I proceeded to take him under like I was Reverend Watson baptizing the first candidate at the new member service. When he came up he was shocked and shaking. I know it sounds bad but, come on. We are in three feet of water. I know you’re thinking, “Poor baby! Somebody needs to teach that mean old Daddy a lesson!” Stay with me and I promise it gets better.

I decided we would sit on the side of the pool and practice holding our breath. We do that several times. Eventually, I said, “Okay. Let’s try holding your breath and putting your face in the water.” He does that several times successfully. “Jevon, it’s time to go under again. If you did this, you can do that.” He freezes. I have Markaila try to do it with him. I even jumped in the water and did it and he still would not go. After about an hour, I just let him go get the floating device.

I go swimming through the water and I notice Markaila needs to learn to float and wade through the water. She tries but flops through it splashing everywhere but she does go under. I wanted to see how deep this water goes so I swim to the other side and noticed it goes up to five feet. She is about four and a half feet. Ding! Now I noticed why she felt uncomfortable on the boat! But she can’t keep swimming in three feet and learn how to swim because she is too tall for it. I got an idea! “Markaila! Come on let’s go! I know how I’m going to teach you how to swim better than you do now.” I go get her and proceeded to carry her to the five feet. She climbs up on me and is as scared as Jevon was. I had to talk to her and convince her to trust me, much like I did with Jevon. I tried reassuring her that I would not let anything happen to her. She would not try it unless she felt my hands under her. The moment I even moved a little, she began to panic. 

God immediately got my attention and said, “Marcus, here is where you need to pay attention.” I whispered, “I hear you, Lord.” God began to show me some things.  


1.     EVERYONE IS IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE POOL AT DIFFERENT OR SAME LEVELS. It doesn’t mean anyone is any better than another. If one person can swim in nine feet, it doesn’t make them any better than anyone else. It just means wherever you are you should be getting challenged. If you are not being challenged where you are (a job, church, relationship, career, etc.), it’s time to move to a deeper level of the pool or move out of the pool. In other words, don’t ever allow yourself to be intimidated by people who can pray longer than you, say lots of words in prayer, people who can stand in front of people and say such eloquent words and make people jump and shout. The place where you are should be a challenge. There are people who have never prayed or never read the scripture or never even spoke in front of people. If it is a challenge for you to pray for 8 to 10 minutes, then try practicing in your own private time praying for like 2 to 3 minutes. All of us started out in 2 to 3 feet of water at one time. If I was able to take you back to the times when I first learned to pray, you would laugh or be amazed at how different it is now and would probably ask, “Who is that?” We all start somewhere. And let me also say that the prayer does not require you to say long deep and eloquent words. The point is that you speak from a place of sincerity. You speak with the truthfulness of your spirit. Of course there is a difference between praying with other people and praying by privately. But we will cover that later. My main point in this first point is that you start where you are.  

Ecclesiastes 9:11 in the King James Version says,  “ I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” 
If that wasn’t clear, let’s read it in the New Living Translation which says it like this, “I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.”

2. IF YOU DON’T ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE, YOU WILL OUTGROW WHERE YOU ARE. Much like the levels that my son, daughter and I, were in the water, if I had never learned how to swim, I would not be able to function in any level of that water I was in. When you accept Christ you are like a baby that needs to be fed or you will suffer from malnutrition or worse case you will die.
Ephesians Chapter 4 starting at verse 14 says, “¹⁴ Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. ¹⁶ He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Let me also point out that when you are not being challenged, this is also how burnout, boredom and complacency become a reality. We will cover that later. 

3.     FIND WHAT YOU FEAR, AND FACE IT. Hidden in that fear is a warrior that can do more than conquer where you are. Romans 8:37 says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” The New Living Translation says, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” We were not made to just conquer, but to be more than a conqueror. In order to do that, we have to face the thing we fear the most.