By Jessica Brodie

Having grown up in Miami, you’d think the idea of jumping into a cold swimming pool would have been a treat for me. Nope—the idea of slipping into frigid water wasn’t my favorite. 

Timid, little-girl Jessica would dip a toe in, shiver, then go sit and wait until I was so hot I couldn’t stand it anymore. Then I’d dip a toe in again and finally decide to go for it.

That first plunge was a brutal shock. But almost immediately, I’d be over the cold. My body would be used to the water, and I’d swim all afternoon. Still, even today I approach a body of water the same way. I’ll dip a toe in, shiver, and wait until I feel good and ready to take the plunge.

Dipping a toe in was, unfortunately, also how I treated my faith for many years. I believed, but I didn’t really want to go all-in for Jesus. Perhaps I was afraid that once I fully immersed myself in the living waters of Jesus, I wouldn’t be able to go back to my old, comfortable ways. Maybe I feared the shock that living water would create in my world. Maybe I was afraid of losing myself, losing control, losing whatever tenuous hold I had over my own life.

So I’d dip a toe in, going to church but always leaving right after, never getting involved. I’d read a Bible verse but shy away from diving in to read the whole thing. I’d cultivate a Christian friendship but keep that friend at arm’s length.

I wanted time, space, freedom to make that jump on my own terms.

I’m not sure why I waited so long, looking back. But when I finally jumped into that “Jesus swimming pool”—when I finally made the decision to not only believe but to go all in, to make Jesus Christ the true Lord of my whole entire life—it was amazing! Those waters felt like nothing else I’d ever experienced. The freedom, the bliss, the power of that surrender felt indescribably good and right, like coming home after years of hard labor and nightmarish battle to the sweetest, most comforting place you can imagine.

All those years of dipping a toe in felt wasted, silly, illogical. All I needed to do was jump in.

Now I know, and it feels so good to swim in the living waters of Jesus now, and to delight as friends and family join me there.

In the Bible, John 4 tells the story of Jesus’s encounter at the well with a woman. He asked her for a drink of water, and when she questioned him about it, he said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

As they talked, the woman’s eyes were opened, and she suddenly understood—she was in dialogue with the savior of the world, the Son of God himself. Overcome and instantly transformed, she raced to the town, urging her community to come and see. Her belief, and her testimony, brought countless to faith when they, too, encountered Jesus and the living water he offered.

But here’s the truth: that living water isn’t meant to be sipped but gulped. Bathed in. Fully immersed in. That belief isn’t meant to be mere “head action” but “heart action,” the kind of belief that changes your entire life. It’s not a lukewarm, feel-good Gospel but a transformative, powerful, everlasting Truth that causes everything in your whole entire life to change and grow and shift, to turn upside down as you shrug off the powers and temptations of this world and put on your new, Christ-like garment of holiness, righteousness, and merciful love.

Jesus talked about the need to go all in—to gulp and not merely sip that living water—when he talked with his disciples as his time on earth was drawing to a close. In Matthew 16, we’re told how Jesus explained that he would suffer and be killed in Jerusalem at the hands of the elders and chief priests. His disciples didn’t get it.

“Never, Lord!” Peter protested (Matthew 16:22 NIV).

But Jesus stopped him, setting him and the other disciples straight about what a life of true discipleship, true Christianity, meant.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26).

If you’ve been dipping a toe into the Jesus Swimming Pool, afraid to jump in, remember Jesus’s words. Dipping a toe into the waters isn’t really swimming. Following Jesus halfway isn’t really following Jesus.

This world is temporary. Like our human bodies, it, too, will eventually crumble and erode. The shiny things of today, the concerns of this society, the money and the prestige and the relationships we so cherish will all eventually fade.

But Jesus is forever. And following Jesus is eternal. So jump in, my friends. Let’s swim with Jesus together.

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