I was on a plane flying home from a week away on business … tooling along at about 600 mph and 35,000 or so feet up. Normally I can sleep on planes but this time, God wasn’t letting me sleep. My mind was stirring.

I put in the earplugs for my iPod. I searched for something that would help me sleep. I tried some Andrea Boccelli. It didn’t help. I tried Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Still no sleep. Instead, they just seemed to get me more stirred up. So I gave up. I started listening to the Ramsey Lewis Trio. The first song on the album I was listening to was good but I didn’t care for the second one so I flipped to the third. It was a vocal and instrumental of one of my favorite songs – “Wade In The Water”.

I started listening intently on my iPod … “Wade in the water children … God’s going to trouble the water.” And then I looked out the window to my left. A huge and magnificent lightning show was taking place. It was an incredible storm with almost constant lightning. The pilot came over the loudspeaker and said that it could get bumpy.

“Wade in the water … God’s going to trouble the water.” As I listened, I noticed something incredible … the lightning and the music were in total sync with one another. Dramatic parts of the song brought on big strikes of lightning. More mellow parts of the song resulted in just a soft lighting of the ominous clouds off to my left. It was phenomenal. God was orchestrating it just for me. How often do you get treated to that, I thought to myself?

“Wade in the water … God’s going to trouble the water.”

It’s a song about freedom. Sung by the slaves, it offered a secret code that the way to freedom was to walk in the rivers and streams because dogs would not be able to track you there.

But the “troubled water” has additional meaning. Think about the paralytic waiting near the Sheep Gate in John 5. He was waiting for the water to bubble up – to be troubled, hoping to be carried to it as it bubbled so that he might obtain his freedom from paralysis. When Jesus heard this story, he gave the man his freedom … in more ways than one.

But what does that story mean to us today? What does it mean to be free in Christ?

Let's take a look at John 8:31-36. For context, realize that Jesus was trying to help the Jews of His day understand that truth was no longer to be reached through following rules and customs. The intersection of God and earth was no longer in the inner depths of the temple. In the future, you would come to the Father through the Son.

31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[b] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Slaves to sin … think about that …

We're all tainted ... tainted by humanity. Or maybe a better way to say it is that we're all dipped, soaked, and soggy in humanity.

For me, a big part of "freedom in Christ" is the realization that we all -- and by that I particularly mean "me" -- are tainted. Freedom in Christ allows me to see that we are all the same. We're all broken, we all make mistakes, we all have things in our past that haunt us, we all deal with "stuff" today as well. We're all the same. Dipped, soaked and soggy in humanity.

Freedom comes when we see our true state. When we see that God created us for perfection but humanity drags us far short of it. When we realize this, we can relate to our fellow man on common ground, realizing that we are all broken. We have all sinned and no sin is worse than any other. Admitting this brings a humility that invades, permeates, and propagates our love for others. And when we have that love for others, God calls us to step off the shore … to wade in the water.

But what happens when we wade in the water? We know that things sometimes can get a little rough. Think about Peter. Jesus didn’t appear right at the side of the boat and say “Here Petey-boy, grab my hand!” No, He was in the distance and He said “Walk to me.” Peter had to make the move … he had to go into the troubled water.

“Wade in the water” … there’s freedom in the water … the slaves and the paralytic knew that.

But at the same time “God’s going to trouble the water.” We may get our hands and feet a dirty. God often calls us into what we see as troubled water because that is where growth occurs. Wading in will bring our own spiritual growth and formation but also, by example, it can bring growth to those we serve and those who observe us.

Where is He calling you? Where is He calling your small group? Where is he calling your church? What is the troubled water He wants you to wade in? Is it a huge step or is it perhaps reaching out more to relatives and co-workers? What is it that scares you – that looks like troubled water? When God’s calling, I think we all know it. But the question is, will we follow?

“Wade in the water children…” Just do it. It’s His work and He’ll hold you.