Summertime is here! For many, this means cookouts, ball games, vacations, and pool parties. Kids seem to enjoy the pool parties best, and when you get some pool noodles and beach balls involved, you are in for some real summer fun! It is funny to watch kids try to sink an inflatable beach ball. No matter how hard they try to push the ball down into the water, it always pops back up to the surface.
Sometimes, our lives are just like a swimming pool filled with water. But unlike a crystal-clear pool, people can often only see the surface level of our lives. The reason is that we do our best to suppress our weaknesses, failures, sins, and shortcomings; but we fail to realize that, eventually, they will always pop back to the surface.
Consider Daniel in the time of King Darius. The Bible tells us that the presidents and princes, out of envy for Daniel, sought to find occasion against him. They searched high and low for “dirt” on Daniel that would discredit his character, but here is what the Scriptures tell us:” . . .they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him” (Dan. 6:4). What a testimony!
I wonder what could be said of our testimonies? If someone, who had it out for us, decided to take a fine-toothed comb through our credit card statements, our internet search histories, our family affairs, or our social media screen time, what would they find? Would they discover a person who looks great on the surface, but who is working full-time to try to suppress the hidden life they are really living? Or, would they find a Daniel, who couldn’t care less if you rummage through his private life, because he’s got nothing to hide. In fact, the Bible tells us that the presidents and princes concluded that if they were going to find fault with Daniel, it was going to be in the fact that he was too dedicated to His God. Wow, what a testimony! May we be people who follow Christ both in public and in private.